Microporous water with high gas solubilities

Liquids with permanent microporosity can absorb larger quantities of gas molecules than conventional solvents', providing new opportunities for liquid-phase gas storage, transport and reactivity. Current approaches to designing porous liquids rely on sterically bulky solvent molecules or surface ligands and, thus, are not amenable to many important solvents, including water(2-4). Here we report a generalizable thermodynamic strategy to preserve permanent microporosity and impart high gas solubilities to liquid water. Specifically, we show how the external and internal surface chemistry of microporous zeolite and metal-organic framework (MOF) nanocrystals can be tailored to promote the formation of stable dispersions in water while maintaining dry networks of micropores that are accessible togas molecules. As a result of their permanent microporosity, these aqueous fluids can concentrate gases, including oxygen (O-2) and carbon dioxide (CO2), to much higher densitiesthan are found in typical aqueous environments. When these fluids are oxygenated, record-high capacities of O-2 can be delivered to hypoxic red blood cells, highlighting one potential application of this new class of microporous liquids for physiological gastransport.

Automated summary

Liquids with permanent microporosity can be used for gas storage and transport, and a thermodynamic strategy has been discovered to make water a permanent microporous liquid that can concentrate gases such as oxygen, showing potential for physiological gas transport.