Breathtaking: New crystal steals oxygen from air

a reply to: AnteBellum

Wow...

Nice catch! I had entirely failed to make that connection!

In the words of the smoothest zombie imaginable "That's a beautiful brain you have there!".

originally posted by: AnteBellum

Maybe this is what they have been using all along. . .

It's not.

eta: the class of materials you're likely talking about isn't one "super thermite" but a variety of different types of thermite-like mixtures with different characteristics. And the "super" part is something you get from how the stuff is prepared as much as what's in it.

a reply to: TrueBrit
"One of the things I have always wondered is if there is a method of deconstructing Co2 molecules into their carbon, and oxygen components, without using combustion of some sort. If that were possible, a method which simply breaks down the molecule into pure carbon, and oxygen, whether that might be a solution, whether whatever method makes it possible would be viable on a massive scale." /quote by TrueBrit
Thats two good ideas in a row from you TrueBrit!

Maybe something like this:
Get your factory/car co2 stored in a tank as it is produced.
Then maybe aggitate the co2 with ultrasound/microwave or similar at the correct frequency to losen the bonds.
Then release a load of these magic crystals into the tank,and all the oxygen gets pulled into the crystals,to be vented from the tank(or reused as clean fuel in an engine).
The remaining carbon can then be removed from the tank and used as a building material-or processed into carbon fiber.

That way,we mimic nature in the way she locks away carbon in the form of coal,but it is also being used productively while its locked away-unlike coal.

Win win or what?

Yay, me! I get to be the first one to say "Star Wars Episode I Jedi re-breathers!"

Unless someone posted while I was writing this...

So, it's like those desiccant crystals they use to keep new shoes dry?

a reply to: Bedlam

Your probably right, I watched it years ago but remembered thinking to myself at the time, "If only I knew what that powdery stuff was???"

The woman was a leading scientist demolitions expert working for the DoD at Sandia Labs trying to find alternate, stable high explosives or something like that. I wish I could remember the episode. . .

They were specifically talking about breaching explosives that would be carried to location by soldiers and needed to be bulletproof from detonation but also extremely volatile. I'll post it if I see it again.

originally posted by: FlyersFan

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

If this news is true then it's amazing. But the source is Russia Today. I'd like to see collaborating reports from other media sources. If they can be found then ...

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

If you will take the word of a fellow ATS'er, then consider it confirmed. I can of course not vouch for the actual science behind it, but I have friends at that university (SDU) who have talked about it. Also, below is the SDU's own site's news bit about it. (In Danish for authenticity)

www.sdu.dk...

Really,it it is true!

You can not use pure oxygen for diving it can be deadly at over 25 feet.
en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: AnteBellum

The woman was a leading scientist demolitions expert working for the DoD at Sandia Labs trying to find alternate, stable high explosives or something like that. I wish I could remember the episode. . .

What Sandia was developing it for is something entirely different. Well, not for them I suppose.

It's a component in the no-maintenance nuke project. Using that explosives technology, you can get extremely powerful, stable, compact charges for nukes. The stuff is freaking amazing. It's got some teething problems that will be worked out. It can be a bear to handle directly. You definitely want to wear your anti-static strap if you like your face and hands in their original state.

a reply to: trollz

Very cool stuff, and does have a bunch of potentials if used for space travel, or for underwater submerged vehicles or areas, they even give of a color when there saturated with oxygen, and when not, not unlike bloodcells in the body which transport oxygen around. Like I said before very cool stuff, especially if a bucket of this stuff can suck the oxygen out of a room and then you transport it somewhere else for release. Who knows if we even build space stations in space, this stuff may just end up being currency, or maybe you can even use it as a sort of building material, which would have a actual and vital function besides just being there and taking up space.

The article does not make it clear, but I assume the crystals absorb oxygen strictly from the atmosphere where it already exists as free O2. But wouldn't it be interesting if the crystals could extract oxygen from other compounds (like water for instance). If it could absorb the oxygen atoms from water then that would leave just the hydrogen atoms that could be collected as they bubble out of the solution. And if you have hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, you can mix them together and burn them creating heat energy.

And since burning oxygen and hydrogen together creates water, that same water can be recycled and broken down again using the crystals. Voila, an infinite energy source.

a reply to: stuthealien

I believe on a nano scale the stuff is a bit bigger then the actual cell, but maybe something of the same nature can be done. Or maybe for people who need it, people who have pacemakers and have oxygen trouble, it could be like an oxygen cell in the machine supplementing extra oxygen to the heart, or a bunch of things of that nature, who knows really.

a reply to: Shadoefax
It requires a reaction/catalyst, a chemical reaction for it to absorb the oxygen in its surroundings I think, but it says all that is required for it to release the oxygen is a bit of heating up or pressure. Or at least that's what it says in the article.

"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 says. "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 continues.

To release the stored oxygen, all that is needed is to heat up the material, or pressure it. And those are just the known, natural ways. McKenzie and the team are now looking further than that. “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," she says.

What may be surprising to some is how natural the process of storing the oxygen really is. The key component in the new material is the metal cobalt. It possesses a natural quality for absorption and “gives the new material precisely the molecular structure that enables it to absorb oxygen from its surroundings.”

The amount of miraculous tech being discovered these last few years is amazing... though I've yet to see it implemented in my environs... excuse me while I switch out my 8-track for cassette.

Spaceballs anyone?

Seriously this is probably the scariest thing I've heard all my life

Forget ebola swine flu and ww3

Now they can steal the air we breath

Great.

Are the things highly flammable?

Super cool! I love stuff like this. I have to say, one of my first thoughts was a whodunit scenario with these crystals being the weapon. So, because of that, it's doubtful we'd ever see this stuff on the store shelves. But all the positive uses would be amazing.
And if a bucketful would release the oxygen in a decent sized room area, I wonder how much would be necessary to oxygenate say, a planet?

Still, neat!

a reply to: trollz

Yes, cool but - what if a train carrying a boxcar full of 'empty' crystals derails in a city? Do the crystals absorb all the oxygen and all the people suffocate? ...What if it derailed into a lake? What happens to the fish?


F&S&

It will be years before they will put this discovery to good use. As every other discovery, they will probably weaponize it with ultra-fast reaction and will use it as a new form of a bomb.

I have copd...throw a couple grains of that into my lungs please.