Scrubbing out acid rain

US scientists have synthesised an organic liquid that can capture sulfur dioxide. The resulting reversible zwitterionic liquid, the first of its kind, could be used to prevent acid rain.

David Heldebrant and colleagues, at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, made a molecule called N,N-dibutylundecanolamine, which consists of a tertiary amine base and an alcohol separated by a long alkyl chain. When they exposed it to sulfur dioxide, it bound the gas as a liquid zwitterionic alkylsulfite salt.  More...

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemTech/Volume/2009/11/scrubbing_acid.asp