Thursday, September 4, 2014

New Nano-Cages Snag and Hold Gases


http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v2/n6/fig_tab/nchem.618_F3.html
Assembly of a metal-organic framework by sextuple intercatenation of discrete adamantine-like cages
Xiaofei Kuang, Xiaoyuan Wu, Rongmin Yu, James P. Donahue, Jinshun Huang, Can-Zhong Lu

    8 comments:

    Mason said...

    I find this very interesting. I think that the scientists may be able to use these cages for liquids too. I think that they may be able to filter water as well as air. Although you may be snagging the gasses, I think that people may inhale these cages, and be harmed.

    Paisley said...

    I think this is really interesting, because these noble gases can really harm us. It is so cool that it was an accident that could actually save people from harmful gases all over the globe. I also think that it is amazing how elements such as oxygen were able to pass right through the cages, but they were able to keep Xenon trapped in it for a total of 15 seconds! This was a really cool scientific invention to read about.

    Sydney said...

    I think that this is a very interesting invention! Those noble gases are useful but dangerous, so it's a good thing that we now have those cages, but it says there that the atoms can be let out again. Why trap something for a short time then let it go? Maybe they could make something like a Chinese finger trap that lets gases in but doesn't let them out. I think that would be a bit better.

    Justin Y said...

    I find this article very fascinating how scientists use this to carry gasses in nano-cages. I agree with Mason 100000 times because I also believe that they could be used to carry and filter water in the air, but I disagree with Mason because I think that these cages could not be harmful and be used.

    James said...

    I think that this is a very interesting article. Being able to catch individual atoms could allow scientists and chemists to study these elements (krypton, radon, and xenon) in the form of a single atom, rather than a group of atoms. Doing this will allow us to increase our knowledge of said elements, allowing us to use them better than before.

    William Moore said...

    This is very interesting because we can study the three elements in more detail and create more things whith them, plus the fact that the nano-cages can capture single atoms is purely amazing.

    Rhea said...

    I think the "happy accident" could be really helpful. The way the cages can trap xenon, krypton, and radon. Even though they are bigger that the nano cage they still wiggle through for at least a few minutes to seconds. I thought it was cool that even though Krypton was there for brief time it only takes a short time to take the atoms. And even though it was an accident it was a great invention. Kind of like Newton and the apple to find out about gravity!

    Jason said...

    I think that this article was very interesting. I think that the idea of trapping a single atom is incredible! I also agree with Mason. Scientists could also use it for liquids. The idea of trapping Radon, Krypton, and Xenon. We could also go into more detail about these elements. The article mentioned that these elements are noble gases as well as "potentially dangerous". I think that if we are going to "capture" certain atoms it might as well be helpful to the environment.