I'm a materials scientist, but this isn't my background, so I'm just taking a stab: These materials have a lot of potential for several reasons: high surface a

I'm a materials scientist, but this isn't my background, so I'm just taking a stab: These materials have a lot of potential for several reasons: high surface area (many reactions and processes are often rate-limited by surface exposure), surface activity (not sure about metal carbonates, but some metal oxides for example have a photocatalytic effect, where exposing a surface to light can break down compounds adsorbed on the surface), and very fine (and potentially controllable) pore size (with the potential to filter out things on a molecular level -- so it could potentially be tailored for like isolating co2 from a gas stream, water purification, heavy metal uptake). Just a few guesses. And of course, since the research came out of a cold country, think of all the applications for hockey rinks! Love that.