Hatrack River Forum: Crystal with huge interior surface area

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

I was just reading in New Scientist that researchers at Ann Arbor have succeeded in creating a crystal with an incredibly huge interior surface area. One gram of this stuff has an interior surface area of approximately 1,190 square meters! [Eek!]

[ February 04, 2004, 02:53 PM: Message edited by: Noemon ]

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

By the way, when I was creating this thread, I googled to find out the surface area of a tennis court, since the article just said that a gram of this crystal had an interior area equivalent to the surface area of 17 tennis courts, but didn't give an actual measurment. From my googling, I accidentally found out that the human lung has an interior area of 70 meters squrared, which is approximately that of the surface area of a tennis court. Isn't that interesting?

Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :

And here I was looking for an "Alvin" reference!

AJ

Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :

For some reason (probably Biology in the dim recesses of my memory) I knew that about the surface area of our lungs being the size of a tennis court. The small intestine surface area is the size of a baseball diamond.

AJ

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

I wonder what it is for the entire circulatory system, capillaries and arterioles included?

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

I didn't see in the article - what's the volume of one gram of the crystal?

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

I was taught that the circulatory system was long enough to criss-cross the USA a couple times, I believe.

-Bok

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

I'm not sure Dagonee--all the article says on the subject is

quote:
The molecules are positioned at the vertices of the tetrahedral zinc oxide-based complexes, an arrangement that yields a very high surface area relative to the crystal's volume.

I tried to find the corresponding article in Nature, in hopes that it would have more information, but either it isn't on their website or I'm just missing it.

Posted by Robespierre (Member # 5779) on :

Wouldn't the crystal have to be hollow to have an interior surface area? Otherwise, I would guess that the internal would match exactly the external surface area.

[ February 04, 2004, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: Robespierre ]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

Nope.

Think of a flaky pastry. All those layers have surface areas. The more layers, the more surface area on the interior of a pastry.

Posted by Robespierre (Member # 5779) on :

I see. So something like an onion would have a very large internal surface area, when compared with its actual surface area?

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :

~100,000kilometres/60,000miles of capillaries with a total surface area of some 800-1000 square metres.

Which is weird cuz I multiplied their length by their capillary diameter of 7.5micrometres times pi to get a surface area of ~2200 square metres

[ February 05, 2004, 11:40 PM: Message edited by: aspectre ]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

It all depends on the scale you look at it at, actually.

From the article desriptions, this substance has a very high surface area on the scale of molecular bonds -- on a larger scale it may effectively be solid, somewhat like certain kinds of rocks have larger holes and others have smaller holes -- sometimes so small you can't see them but still large enough to pass water through. The rocks with the holes you can't see generally have more surface area (lots of tiny holes) if you're at that scale. If you're at a larger scale, then the rock doesn't have much/any internal surface area because the holes aren't under consideration.

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

What could it be good for? Possibly Bounty's controversial 3rd ply?

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

[Smile]

Good link pooka.

From the article

quote:
The substance's capaciousness should make it extremely useful as a molecular trap for large molecules, such as pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals....

"MOF-177 has really spectacular properties," says Pierre Jacobs, a chemist at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He says the major breakthrough is that the holes within the crystal are large enough to accommodate relatively large molecules, more than one nanometre across.

It could therefore be used to separate different molecules during the chemical manufacture of compounds such as pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals or buckyballs. MOF-177, or related substances, could also find a role as a molecular sponge for storing hydrogen in fuel cells for vehicles, Jacobs suggests

Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :

Hhwaaaa dude, thats like, Hhwoah....

Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :

Did you know that if you took all the veins and arteries from a 6 foot man, and laid them end to end, he would die?

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

Amazing!

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

[ROFL]

Proof! I wan't proof!
edit: i kant spel

[ February 04, 2004, 04:13 PM: Message edited by: pooka ]

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

::is suddenly glad to only be about 5'6" or so::

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

I expect the height of the man has little to do with the rate of survival after such a procedure. Though we could pretend otherwise.

So, does the forum work again?

Edit: yes, it apparently does. [Smile]

[ February 05, 2004, 03:46 PM: Message edited by: Mike ]

Posted by Mr.Funny (Member # 4467) on :

What are you talking about height for? Slash was talking about men with six feet!