Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,
Lately in class, we have been researching nanotechnology and were assigned to create an idea for a nanotechnology invention.
I became genuinely interested and came up with an idea one day.

Do you think it would be possible to create a mask that splits water molecules to give you oxygen to breathe, so you can breathe underwater without bulky oxygen tanks?
I have notice many articles speaking about splitting water molecules to create hydrogen for solar energy, but nothing about the oxygen. Many of the materials used in these ideas don't seem porous enough so that you can breathe or may be dangerous in such close contact to human skin.

My teacher said that anything you could imagine is possible, but I WOULD like some background on the topic before choosing random implausible topics.
Thank you,
Michelle Pham

Hi mimipham02,

Very intriguing idea! It might be possible to make a water splitting device that provides oxygen for underwater breathing. But there are significant challenges that would have to be solved.

Splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen requires a lot of energy. That means that the breathing device would need a battery or other power source to function. Also, the production of oxygen would need to be pretty rapid to keep up with a normal breathing rate. Otherwise the breathing device would need a reservoir to maintain an oxygen supply. And breathing pure oxygen is toxic so the device would have to include a source of nitrogen to mix with the oxygen. A device with all of these components might well be more bulky than the compressed air tanks used for underwater breathing.

Perhaps there is a nanotechnology solution for one or more of these challenges.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

Thank you,
That was very helpful.
I will hopefully come up with a few solutions to those problems.

Michelle