A new Material Can Sucks all the Oxygen of a Room

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Posted By: - Tarun


Scientists from the University of Southern Denmark have developed a new form of crystalline cobalt salt that acts like a super-effective oxygen sponge. Once it sucks up oxygen, it will hold on to it indefinitely until it's gently heated or exposed to low oxygen pressure, at which point it will quietly release its oxygen hoard back out into the atmosphere. About 10 liters of it would be needed to suck all of the oxygen out of an average-sized room.
"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,” said lead researcher and Nano bioscience professor Christine McKenzie, in a press release. "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."
The material works by forming a chemical bond with individual oxygen molecules, sort of how oxygen molecules bind with a blood protein called hemoglobin when we breathe, so the oxygen can be distributed around our bodies. Just like hemoglobin, this new material can both sense and contain oxygen, which means it can be used to bind, store and transport it for a range of different applications, from medical equipment to new scuba diving technology.
The key to the material’s success in trapping and holding such a large amount of oxygen molecules is its lattice crystalline structure, says Michael Byrne at Motherboard:
"Each single crystal structure features two nitrate ions bound to a metallic molecular substructure, like a nitrogen house built on a cobalt foundation. It's really a nitrogen mobile home, however, as the introduction of oxygen to the neighborhood means the nitrogen ions very quickly split town. The oxygen ions then set up shop themselves on the cobalt foundation.” Once the material is heated up or the pressure in the environment is lowered just enough, the oxygen will move back out into the atmosphere and the nitrogen will move back into the lattice structure of cobalt material.

The research has been published in the journal Chemical Science.