KAIST develops low-power electrified DAC with silver fibers

KAIST announced on 2025-08-25 that Professor Dong-Yeun Koh’s research team, in collaboration with Professor T. Alan Hatton’s group at MIT, developed the world’s first ultra-efficient electrified Direct Air Capture (e-DAC) device using conductive silver nanofibers that captures >95% high-purity CO₂ using only smartphone-level power (3V).

• Main announcement/action: The e-DAC uses conductive silver nanowire/nanoparticle-coated porous fibers that heat via Joule heating to 110°C within 80 seconds using 3V (smartphone charging voltage), achieved >95% high-purity CO₂ recovery under real atmospheric conditions; modularization reduced total resistance to <1 Ω and single-fiber resistance to ~0.5 Ω/cm. The team filed core technology patents (PCT WO2023068651A1; country entries: US, EP, JP, AU, CN) and published the work in Advanced Materials (online 2025-08-01; DOI provided). Funding/support: Aramco–KAIST CO₂ Research Center and the National Research Foundation of Korea (Ministry of Science and ICT, No. RS-2023-00259416).
• Background and details: The announcement contrasts with conventional DAC that requires >100°C steam for regeneration (consuming ~70% of total DAC energy); the KAIST–MIT approach creates a breathable conductive coating (~3 µm) enabling both electrical conductivity and gas diffusion, reducing heat loss by ~20% vs existing technologies, enabling easy integration with renewable energy and alignment with corporate RE100 goals. Lead contributors include Professor Dong-Yeun Koh (KAIST), Professor T. Alan Hatton (MIT), and co-first authors Young Hun Lee, Jung Hun Lee, Hwajoo Joo (MIT).