(Newswire.net — April 29, 2015) — Jacques Cousteau, the inventor of the SCUBA closed circuit breathing system for breathing under water, once said that in the distant future, man would find a way to breath under water as a fish, and he was wrong – this could happen not in the distant but rather in the near future. Thanks to a newly discovered breakthrough, scuba divers soon might lose those big tanks with compressed air.
Scientists from the University of Southern Denmark backed by the University of Sidney, Australia, have discovered crystalline materials that are capable of pulling oxygen out of both air and water. The revolutionary material can bind and store oxygen in high concentrations, then control its release time depending on what the user needs.
Professor Christine McKenzie was the one who led the study, alongside Jonas Sundberg, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Southern Denmark, collective-evolution.com reported.
The study showed that approximately 2,5 gallons (10 liters) of microscopic crystal grains could be enough to completely suck the oxygen out of a room.
“In the lab, we saw how this material took up oxygen from the air around us,” Professor Christine McKenzie said.
“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,” she added.
Reportedly, when the crystalline-made material, obtained by using x-ray diffraction, is saturated with oxygen, it behaves like an oxygen tank containing three times more oxygen than regular tanks.
“An important aspect of this new material is that it does not react irreversibly with oxygen – even though it absorbs oxygen in a so-called selective chemisorptive 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,” McKenzie said.
“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,” she said.