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You can now buy ink made from air pollution

You can now buy ink made from air pollution
You can now buy ink made from air pollution You can now buy ink made from air pollution

Scientists have created an ink made from air pollution in a bid to reduce emissions in some of the world’s most polluted cities.

Graviky Labs, a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab, has invented a device which can be affixed to the exhaust pipe of a car or generator and collect unburned carbon.

The resulting soot is then treated to remove carcinogens and heavy metals, leaving behind a pigment which can then be made into various inks.

In just 45 minutes, the device can capture enough carbon to make one fluid ounce of ink – that’s enough to fill one of their pens.

As part of their testing phase, the team asked artists to get involved. “I wrote with ink made from three hours’ worth of pollution from Bangalore, India,” said Sneha Sreshtha from the South Asia Institute at Harvard University. “It gave my art more purpose. This is how inks should be made.”

To bring the device to the masses, the team launched a KickStarter crowdfunding initiative last week, which has already met its target.