| CSIRO seeks uses for TARDIS-like crystals |
Australian scientists are working on practical uses for a technology that, like Dr Who's TARDIS, is much bigger on the inside.
Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are tiny crystals with a unique structure that ensures a teaspoon of the stuff has the same surface area as a football field.
MOFs can be used to store gas and offer the potential for new types of gas tanks with dramatically increased capacity.
They could also help save the planet as MOFs can trap greenhouse gases or support break-through developments in use of hydrogen as a fuel.
CSIRO's Dr Matthew Hill says the potential of MOFs is - like their interior - huge.
'MOFs, if you had a jar of it, looks like salt or sugar crystals but inside those crystals are more holes that have been found in any material ever known to man,' he told AAP.
'They can soak up a small molecule like carbon dioxide or hydrogen as a fuel, or natural gas, and store it far more densely than you could get it otherwise.'
MOFs were discovered in the 1990s and the handbrake on the technology has been the slow pace at which MOFs can be generated, though Dr Hill said new speedier techniques have recently emerged.
Dr Hill leads a team of about 20 CSIRO scientists who are working on uses for MOFs and he describes the technology as 'on the cusp'.
'The field will explode and the question is whether it is in one, three or five years, that's the hard thing to pick,' Dr Hill said.
'We should be leading that rather than following it.'
Dr Hill will speak on MOFs at Future Assembly, an emergent technology festival at Melbourne Showgrounds from November 13-14.
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