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Why "essential small molecules"?
法国液化空气公司气体(最著名的是氧气,nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide…) are referred in the scientific community as small molecules due to their small number of atoms and very simple structures. We classified these molecules in 5 families:
- O&N-molecules: oxygen, nitrogen, ozone, nitrous oxide, nitrogen monoxide…
- H-molecules: hydrogen, water
- Organometallics: silane, germane…
- C-molecules : carbon monoxide, acetylene, carbon dioxide, methanol, methane…
- Noble gases: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon
The importance of these molecules will increase due to the roles they play in global issues such as resource constraints, urbanization, evolution of consumption modes, and the rapid increase and ageing of the world population.These key challenges enhance the importance of these small molecules, which have already been essential for life development for millennia. Therefore, they are “Essential Small Molecules” in many regards for humankind and embody the Air Liquide scientific territory.
Life, matter and energy
Essential Small Molecules exhibit an extremely wide variety of physical and chemical properties which make them essential to nature and human activities.
Life
Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, water…These molecules have sustained life for millenniaand are key components in virtually all natural, biological and biogeochemical cycles. Examples of daily usages include:
- Medical Oxygen forrespiratory diseasesorintensive care
- Nitrogen toimprove shelf life和保护食物from bacteria or mold (ALIGAL™offer)
- Carbon dioxide as a cryogenic fluid infreezingfood
Matter
Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, organometallics… All of these molecules allow the creation and transformation of matter.
Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and nitrogen are used as feedstock forchemicalprocesses.The resulting products are needed to prepare everyday materials: textiles, plastics, rubber, fibers, fertilizers, paints, building materials to name a few. For their part, organometallics (silane, metal complexes…) are used in the production ofsemiconductorsfor electronic devices (advanced materials offer).
Energy
Oxygen, hydrogen, helium… These molecules play a key role in the production, storage and conversion of energy.
- Advanced oxygen solutions for efficiency for the glass market (oxy-combustion)
- Hydrogen as aclean energy for mobility(fuel cell vehicles)
- Helium for manufacturing process offiber optics
The first “Air Liquide Essential Molecules Challenge”
In 2016, the m-Lab organized the first Scientific Challenge to cooperate with the international scientific community (academics, technology institutes, start-ups, private R&D…) on Air Liquide's molecule territory, related to topics with a high societal impact. Following the review of 130 proposals coming from 25 countries,three laureateswere selected to receive the Air Liquide Scientific Award and a 2-4 year cooperation with the Group for developing their proposal. Themes were:
- "Sunny H2in a bottle", discovering an efficient way of producing hydrogen from water by using sun energy
- "Pocketable Small Molecules", finding sponge materials for high density storage and safe supply of gases
- "CO2, give back your O2!", producing oxygen and carbon monoxide from carbon dioxide in a sustainable way
Article published on November 02, 2017
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