Water possesses numerous properties (including high biocompatibility, ionic solubility, and availability) that make it attractive and indispensable for many biological and industrial applications. Despite these advantages, the use of water has traditionally been hampered by its extremely low gas solubility. Existing approaches to address this issue suffer from either incompatibility with most gases, irreversibility, or limited final gas loadings. Here, we describe a strategy towards aqueous solutions with total calculated O<sub>2</sub> carrying capacities that exceed the bulk density of O<sub>2 </sub>gas. In this strategy, dry microporous networks are dispersed throughout the aqueous solution via the addition of activated hydrophobic zeolite nanocrystals. Simulations show that these micropores thermodynamically favor the dry state, permitting rapid and selective gas uptake by the nanocrystals even when surrounded by bulk water. The thus-obtained solutions display remarkable stability, high cyclability, and low viscosities, and are usable with a broad range of gases. These microporous aqueous solutions could provide a promising avenue to address gas limitations in numerous existing aqueous processes.

Stable microporosity in water via hydrophobic zeolite nanoparticles

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