Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have synthesized crystalline materials that can bind and store oxygen in high concentrations. Just one spoon of the substance is enough to absorb all the oxygen in a room. The stored oxygen can be released again when and where it is needed.
We do fine with the 21 per cent oxygen in the air around us. But sometimes we need oxygen in higher concentrations; for example lung patients must carry heavy oxygen tanks, cars using fuel cells need a regulated oxygen supply. Perhaps one day in the future even sunlight-driven "reversible" fuel cells will be made. With these we will have to separate oxygen from hydrogen in order to recombine them in order to get energy.
Now Professor Christine McKenzie and postdoc Jonas Sundberg, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Southern Denmark have synthesized a material that absorb oxygen in large quantities and store it.
"In the lab, we saw how this material took up oxygen from the air around us", says Christine McKenzie.
The new material is crystalline, and using x-ray diffraction the researchers have studied the arrangement of atoms inside the material when it was filled with oxygen, and when it was emptied of oxygen.
Oxygen comes and goes in many places
The fact that a substance can react with oxygen is not surprising. Lots of substances do this - and the result is not always desirable: Food can go rancid when exposed to oxygen. On the other hand a wine's taste and aroma is changed subtly when we aerate it - but not with too much oxygen! Our bodies cannot function if we do not breathe.
The material is so effective at binding oxygen, that only a spoon of it is enough to suck up all the oxygen in a room. The researchers' work indicates that the substance can absorb and bind oxygen in a concentration 160 times larger than the concentration in the air around us.
"It is also interesting that the material can absorb and release oxygen many times without losing the ability. It is like dipping a sponge in water, squeezing the water out of it and repeating the process over and over again", Christine McKenzie explains.
Once the oxygen has been absorbed you can keep it stored in the material until you want to release it. The oxygen can be released by gently heating the material or subjecting it to low oxygen pressures.
Heat and pressure releases the stored oxygen
"We see release of oxygen when we heat up the material, and we have also seen it when we apply vacuum. We are now wondering if light can also be used as a trigger for the material to release oxygen – this has prospects in the growing field of artificial photosynthesis", says Christine McKenzie.
The key component of the new material is the element cobalt, which is bound in a specially designed organic molecule.
"Cobalt gives the new material precisely the molecular and electronic structure that enables it to absorb oxygen from its surroundings. This mechanism is well known from all breathing creatures on earth: Humans and many other species use iron, while other animals, like crabs and spiders, use copper. Small amounts of metals are essential for the absorption of oxygen, so actually it is not entirely surprising to see this effect in our new material", explains Christine McKenzie.
Depending on the atmospheric oxygen content, temperature, pressure, etc. it takes seconds, minutes, hours or days for the substance to absorb oxygen from its surroundings. Different versions of the substance can bind oxygen at different speeds. With this complexity it becomes possible to produce devices that release and/or absorb oxygen under different circumstances – for example a mask containing layers of these materials in the correct sequence might actively supply a person with oxygen directly from the air without the help of pumps or high pressure equipment.
"When the substance is saturated with oxygen, it can be compared to an oxygen tank containing pure oxygen under pressure - the difference is that this material can hold three times as much oxygen," says Christine McKenzie.
"This could be valuable for lung patients who today must carry heavy oxygen tanks with them. But also divers may one day be able to leave the oxygen tanks at home and instead get oxygen from this material as it "filters" and concentrates oxygen from surrounding air or water. A few grains contain enough oxygen for one breath, and as the material can absorb oxygen from the water around the diver and supply the diver with it, the diver will not need to bring more than these few grains".
Explore further:
Research pinpoints role of 'helper' atoms in oxygen release
More information:
Oxygen chemisorption / desorption in a reversible single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation. Jonas Sundberg, Lisa J. Cameron, Peter D. Southon, Cameron J. Kepert and Christine J. McKenzie.
antialias_physorg
Space suits less the bulky oxygen tanks? Coupled with the article on space suits made of thin fabrics one youd imagine a material like this interwoven in the fabric to release oxygen on demand. That would be a really radical departure from current designs.
Goika
Sep 30, 2014axemaster
trux
trux
This could be even more interesting it the material was able to absorb also O2 dissolved in water - it could be used also for an underwater breathing apparatus, sort of artificial gills.
antialias_physorg
https://findresea...636j.pdf
At a quick glance I couldn't find any volumetric info (comparison of substance volume vs. bound O2)..but I only skimmed it.
Returners
That's clearly an exaggeration, because that's more dense than core of the Sun.
Was this "spot the fake article" day?
Eseta
Oct 01, 2014trux
I am afraid I do not understand what exactly you wanted to tell, but if a teaspoon of the material (say 5ml) can absorb 160 times its volume of O2 at atmospheric pressure, it gives 800ml of oxygen, which then corresponds roughly to 4 liters of air (or about smaller vital lung volume). Could be 2l if the spoon was 2.5ml, or perhaps 15 liters or more at a soup spoon.
However, this is all rather irrelevant, because, as I concluded earlier, the article when it speaks about a teaspoon of material sucking O2 from entire room, clearly (though very misleadingly) does not mean that it absorbs the gas in once, but that it could extract the oxygen from a room-size volume if it worked continuously over longer period (say 800 ml at a time, so in couple of thousands of cycles)
trux
To adjust the previous calculation, a 5ml spoon of the material could absorb 160 ml of O2 at 1 bar (air volume of 800 ml - around a slightly bigger breath of an adult). For a room of 50 m3, you would need over 60,000 of absorption/release cycles.
trux
I am still not sure to understand your comment correctly, but have the feeling you mistook the chemical binding of O2 by the material (just like at hemoglobin) to oxygen dissolved in the material. In case of a dissolved O2, your comment would make sense, because it would be indeed difficult for the material to absorb O2 at a partial pressure above the ambient level, but it is not necessarily the case at the chemically based absorption. Assuming I understood you well, I think your commend about the distorted logic of scientist may have been premature and undeserved.
Captain Stumpy
Thanks for that link!
Appreciate it!
Captain Stumpy
personal conjecture not based upon evidence
Perhaps this is your problem, but keep your transference posts to yourself
Your argument has to do with your continued support of a failed, debunked pseudoscience in which you refuse to admit the empirical evidence exists debunking it... therefore anyone who reads your posts can rightfully assume (logically) that you are the one who is not thinking logically (nor sanely)
Physicists debunked your religious belief which was downgraded from a theory to a philosophy - Logic, empirical evidence and math
They ignore your pleading to accept other failed crackpot ideas and pseudoscience & continually refute you with reality - Logic
your acceptance and tenacious clinging to a failed pseudoscience?
NOT logic!
http://sci-ence.o...-flags2/
antialias_physorg
He kindly answered (including a number of papers (if anyone is interested PM me):
[cont]
antialias_physorg
Reply email:
When in doubt - go to the source :)
Captain Stumpy
Interested
can't PM you on PO
do you have a sciforums or saposjoint page log-in?
Cosmoquest?
You can find me at all three under TruckCaptainStumpy
Captain Stumpy
I would recommend setting yourself up at saposjoint
go here: http://saposjoint.net/Forum/
heavily moderated
no RC to bother anyone
easy to use
Tell the MOD or ADMIN Sapo that you want to forward some pages from PO and your message from Professor McKenzie, He is understanding
antialias_physorg
I just created a temporary mail account (24h)
someguyATalivance.com
just shoot me an email there and I'll send them to you (total about 2MB)
trux
@antialias_physorg it was not really necessary to bother the professor with it, it is exactly what I told above, and what is written in the document you kindly linked earlier.
But when you are already in contact with the author, couldn't you ask Professor McKenzie whether the substance would work in water too (extracting O2 dissolved in water)? That would be immensely interesting too.
antialias_physorg
Well, I don't really want to bug her too much, as she's undoubtedly very busy (it's always very nice when someone takes time out of their workday to answer these kinds of things, but we shouldn't push it). But send me an email to the above address and I'll forward the articles she sent to you. Maybe there's something relevant in there that I haven't seen yet.
antialias_physorg
Found something: From what I get from one of the papers she sent there's a certain partial oxygen pressure needed for the absorption to take place. (Absorption was done by bubbling an Argon/Oxygen mix through the dissolved substance).
I don't think you'll find that kind of oxygen pressure in water naturally.
trux
Well, it depends how big ppO2 they used (how much Argon was in the mixture), but the ppO2 at the surface of the ocean is close to the atmospheric ppO2. It then raises with the depth (thanks to the ambient hydrostatic pressure), and only decreases at greater depths, where the saturation starts to decrease faster than the increase of the hydrostatic pressure. So I would not exclude it could work, but I will read through the documents you kindly forwarded. Thanks!
MaxC500
antialias_physorg
Read the other comments. Your questions shall be answered.
trux