Crystals that trap pollution win at Tall Poppies

CSIRO mathematician Dr Aaron Thornton was named a 2012 Victorian Young Tall Poppy last night, in recognition of his work in carbon dioxide and molecular gas research.

  • 13 November 2012 | Updated 14 November 2012

Dr Thornton studies the behaviour and lifecycles of small gas molecules including oxygen, water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and aims to identify ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing the environmental impacts of pollution.

"For an early career researcher, Dr Thornton has already developed mathematical models that have become critical tools for the research community and will no doubt accelerate material discoveries in future."

Dr Anita Hill, Chief, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering

"I have built a virtual environment to mimic the behaviour of gas molecules, to discover new ways of separating and transporting them, leading to sustainable solutions for the environment," Dr Thornton said.

Dr Thornton recently discovered new crystals called zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) that separate one type of molecule from another and could be used to clean pollutants from air and water.

"At CSIRO we are currently developing ZIFs, which could eventually help industry to meet new carbon performance targets by reducing carbon dioxide emissions," he said. 

Chief of CSIRO Process Science and Engineering, Dr Anita Hill, said Dr Thornton has delivered exceptional scientific results through collaborating with a broad research community in Australia and overseas.

"For an early career researcher, Dr Thornton has already developed mathematical models that have become critical tools for the research community and will no doubt accelerate material discoveries in future," Dr Hill said.

"He has also shown dedication to the broader community through the Mathematicians in Schools program, where his work is breaking new ground by bringing manufacturers, parents, teachers and students together in education," she said. 

Dr Thornton is an active board member of the Membrane Society of Australasia, a CSIRO postdoctoral committee member and an active member for the Mathematicians in Schools Program where he assists teachers and students.

The Victorian Young Tall Poppy awards were held at the Bio21 Institute in Parkville and recognised the achievements of Australia’s outstanding young scientists.

Read about CSIRO’s materials research.

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Aaron Thornton discusses being a 2012 Victorian Tall Poppy
Aaron Thornton, a Research Scientist with CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering talks about his research and being a Victorian 2012 Tall Poppy.

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Transcript

Aaron Thornton: It's a real privilege to be a 2012 Victorian Tall Poppy. It gives me a chance to share my research and also demonstrate the important role that mathematics can play in solving some of our energy and environment issues. Plus, it's fun research and I hope to encourage other young Australians to pursue a career in science.

At CSIRO, my research focus is in describing gas molecules. So, in air we have these tiny balls which we can call oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and they all behave really differently. For example, oxygen is light and fast, while carbon dioxide is hot and sticky. So our aim is to separate these mixtures. We want to utilise these differences in properties.

One way to do that is to develop materials that we call molecular fly screens that allow one ball to pass through while trapping another. So imagine that we have molecules in the air right now and they're bouncing off this material. We want to design these holes so that they only allow one particular gas molecule to pass through and this is a very efficient way of separating gas molecules.

This is important in Australia because around 80 per cent of our energy is fossil fuel generated, so we can say that's a dirty way to generate energy. We would like to clean the exhaust products before allowing them into the atmosphere, and these materials are perfect for that because we can basically add filters to all of our power plants and screen out the bad components so that we can generate clean energy.

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