Water laced with nanocrystals containing small pores can carry 100 times more oxygen than normal, which could help it act as an oxygen source to preserve organs and tissues
Technology 24 August 2022
By Alex Wilkins
An artistic representation of nanocrystals (purple and green) absorbing gas molecules
Jarad Mason/University of Harvard
Water modified to absorb gases in a sponge-like way can carry 10 times as much oxygen as blood, which could help it act as an oxygen source in artificial blood substitutes or to help preserve organs and tissues.
Many gases will dissolve in water, but how much this can happen is limited because the hydrogen bonds formed between water molecules, which contain two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, are difficult to break. That means they stay together rather …
