University of Southern Denmark have developed a new crystalline material that can absorb 160 times more oxygen than in the air. A few grains of the material might absorb enough oxygen from the water to allow a diver to breath normally and for to allow lung patients to stop using heavy oxygen tanks. Different absorption and release rates are possible by using different chemical configurations. The oxygen is released by simply gently heating the material or subjecting it to low oxygen pressures. The reason the material is able to absorb such quantities of oxygen is because the material is made up of crystalline salts of a series of cationic multi-metallic cobalt complex. When the substance is saturated with oxygen, it can be compared to an oxygen tank containing pure oxygen under pressure. The difference is that this material can hold three times as much oxygen.
Source: University of Southern Denmark
