PNNL

Abstract

Scientists have been under pressure to help solve global climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions through methods such as carbon sequestration, the capture and long-term storage of carbon dioxide in deep geological formations. Now scientists at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in conjunction with colleagues from Wright State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have taken a step closer with the development of a high-pressure atomic force microscope. Located at DOE’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, this new AFM provides researchers the means to observe in real-time the mineral transformation processes arising from carbon dioxide and mineral interactions at the atomic-scale under pressures similar to those needed for carbon sequestration in geological formations.