Oxygen Separation from Air to Provide Supplemental Oxygen for Injured Soldiers

To generate oxygen enriched gas for injured soldiers via separation from air, the oxygen production devices based on current high temperature membranes technologies are large and consume significant power because the ceramic materials have to operate at high temperatures (>800oC) to achieve acceptable conductivity. Recently developed 2D layered superior oxide-ion conductor Sr3-3xNa3xSi3O9-1.5x (SNS) have demonstrated ~2 magnitude improvement of oxide ion conductivity with the lowest activation energy among all the chemically stable solid oxide-ion conductors especially at intermediate temperatures (400-500oC). This implied the possibility of orders enhancement of oxygen production even at lower temperatures. Further improved oxygen production is envisioned by implication of interpenetrating nano-network surface exchange layers (nanofibers, nanowires, nanospheres based on Nanowises expertise) on top of the superior oxide-ion conductor. Nanowise LLC proposes to design, construct, and evaluate proof of concept device that is capable of generating >1 liter of oxygen enriched gas per minute with solid electrolyte oxygen separation (SEOS) device, which employs SNS as electrolyte material, interpenetrating nano-network electrode materials as surface exchange layers. Detailed conceptual design of a lightweight battery powered system capable of generating 10's of liters of oxygen per minute based upon the results generated in the phase I effort will be developed.