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Suspended pores boost gas solubility in water

Porous solids have been dispersed in water to produce suspensions that can carry much more oxygen than blood can. Such ‘porous water’ opens the way to water-based formulations for biomedical use.
  1. Margarida Costa Gomes

    1. Margarida Costa Gomes is in the Chemistry Laboratory, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 69364 Lyon, France.

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All gases interact, to some extent, with water. Nevertheless, with the exception of reactive gases, their concentration in water is low — often much lower than in organic solvents. If the concentration of aqueous solutions of gases could be increased, this would greatly improve the sustainability of many chemical processes and energy-storage strategies. Most notably, developing the ability to dissolve large amounts of gases such as oxygen or carbon dioxide in aqueous solution would be a major advance for biomedical applications. Writing in Nature, Erdosy et al.1 report a way of creating permanent pores in water, thereby substantially increasing its capacity to dissolve gases.

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Nature 608, 672-673 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02224-7

References

  1. Erdosy, D. P. et al. Nature 608, 712–718 (2022).

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  4. Jie, K., Zhou, Y., Ryan, H. P., Dai, S. & Nitschke, J. R. Adv. Mater. 33, 2005745 (2021).

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  5. Costa Gomes, M., Pison, L., Červinka, C. & Padua, A. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn 57, 11909–11912 (2018).

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  6. Cahir, J. et al. Chem. Sci. 11, 2077–2084 (2020).

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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