Scientists accidentally make ‘impossible material’ Upsalite – the world’s most efficient water absorber
Human error solves problem of how to produce world’s most efficient water absorber more cheaply
It is so difficult to make that the researchers who first discovered it called it the “impossible material”.
Now a century later, a team of Swedish scientists have done the impossible by producing the substance known as Upsalite by accident – after leaving their equipment running over the weekend.
The breakthrough has far-reaching commercial applications, as Upsalite (named after the University of Uppsala, where the scientists are based) is the world’s most efficient water absorber, with potential to be used for the removal of moisture in drug creation and high-tech electronics to cleaning up huge oil spills.
A single gram of this elusive white, dry, powdered form of magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) has an extraordinarily-large surface area of 800 square meters thanks to numerous minuscule pores, each one a million times smaller than the width of a human hair.
“Upsalite absorbs more water and low relative humidities than the best materials presently available and can be regenerated with less energy consumption than is used in similar processes today,” said Maria Stromme, professor of nanotechnology at Uppsala University.
“This, together with other unique properties of the discovered impossible material, is expected to pave the way for new sustainable products in a number of industrial applications,” she said.
Other uses include ice hockey rinks, warehouses, the collection of toxic waste or chemical spills and odour control.
Full report: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-accidentally-make-impossible-material-upsalite—the-worlds-most-efficient-water-absorber-8760118.html