New Substance May Help Us Breathe Underwater and on Mars

A team of scientists at the University of Southern Denmark has created a new solid substance that is able to absorb oxygen directly from its environment and store it for later use. The team has reported that this news cobalt based material can not only draw oxygen directly out of the surrounding air of water, it can also release the stored oxygen back into it’s environment in a controlled manner when triggered to do so.

The abstract for the announcement that was made in the Journal Chemical Science, claims that the substance would be able to hold oxygen in such high concentrations that a small bucket full of the substance would be able to remove all the oxygen from a room.

The team found that when cobalt is bound to a specially designed organic molecule it can absorb oxygen at varying speeds depending on the ambient temperature, barometric pressure and the concentration levels of oxygen in its surroundings.

“An important aspect of this new material is that it does not react irreversibly with oxygen,” said Professor Christine McKenzie who works on the team that developed the process. “The material is both a sensor, and a container for oxygen – we can use it to bind, store, and transport oxygen – like a solid artificial hemoglobin.”

The team has already identified dozens of application from using it to regulate oxygen supply in oxygen dependent devices like fuel cells and laboratory environments, to layering it at varying rates to create a passive barrier that only allows pure oxygen to pass through it.

Such a barrier could be applied to face masks that provide a light weight solution for victims of emphysema who currently need to carry around heavy and cumbersome oxygen tanks.

It could also be used to create a mask for divers who would be able to draw oxygen directly out of the water, allowing them to stay underwater for longer periods of time. “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, noted Professor McKenzie.

NASA may soon be looking into the material as it plans its missions to Mars as a way of drawing extra oxygen out of the thin atmosphere of the red planet to provide longer term solutions to the many engineering problems it is facing on its missions.

To release the oxygen from the material scientists realized that they simply had to heat the material gently or place it in a vacuum. Professor McKenzie also said that they are still looking at other ways to nudge the oxygen molecules out. “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.”

While they haven’t made any announcements on when the material will be available for commercial use, everyone, including us here at Noosphere Ventures, is excited to see the variety of possibilities that this new substance will open up.