Synthetic porous materials that flex to take up and release fuel could lead to cheaper natural-gas cars that don’t need cumbersome storage tanks.
Natural-gas cars remain a niche product except in a few places around the world, even though the fuel is inexpensive and burning it emits less carbon dioxide than gasoline. But new research suggests that a novel class of synthetic materials could spur more widespread adoption by making it easier and cheaper to fuel the cars and store the gas.