The results are published today in PLOS ONE. “It became clear that we had indeed synthesised the material that previously had been claimed impossible to make. The key modification was to increase the pressure of CO 2 to three times that of normal atmospheric pressure, rather than simply bubbling the gas through a mixture of MgO in methanol. Back at work on Monday morning we discovered that a rigid gel had formed and after drying this gel we started to get excited,” says Johan Gomez de la Torre. A year of detailed analysis and experimental fine tuning followed, during which time it was discovered that when heated to 70C the resulting gel solidifies and collapses into a white and coarse powder. Upsalite is for example found to absorb more water at low relative humidities than the best materials presently available; the hydroscopic zeolites, a property that can be regenerated with less energy consumption than is used in similar processes today. A single gram of this elusive white, dry, powdered form of magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) has an extraordinarily-large surface area of 800 square meters thanks to numerous minuscule pores, each one a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. The past 20 years have seen a surge of interest in mesoporous materials such as zeolites and carbon nanotubes due to their ability to selectively absorb small molecules, which may enable applications in drug delivery, pollution removal, and the development of new catalysts for chemical reactions. The discovery will be commercialized though the University spin-out company Disruptive Materials (www.Disruptivematerials.com) that has been formed by the researchers together with the holding company of Uppsala University 
 
 The article describing the novel material is published in PLOS ONE can be read on the following link: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068486 Explore further: Impossible material with world record breaking surface area made by swedish researchers 
 
 More information: Forsgren J, Frykstrand S, Grandfield K, Mihranyan A, Strømme M (2013) A Template-Free, Ultra-Adsorbing, High Surface Area Carbonate Nanostructure. The findings have been published in the journal PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068486 
 
 Abstract 
 
 We report the template-free, low-temperature synthesis of a stable, amorphous, and anhydrous magnesium carbonate nanostructure with pore sizes below 6 nm and a specific surface area of ~ 800 m2 g?1, substantially surpassing the surface area of all previously described alkali earth metal carbonates.
– Sometimes screwing up a science experiment isn't such a bad thing. Case in point: Researchers in Sweden accidentally left their equipment running on an experiment over a weekend, and ended up creating something awesome—Upsalite, the world’s most efficient water absorber, reports the Independent. This substance, prohibitively expensive and difficult to produce until now, can potentially do everything from controlling moisture on a hockey rink to cleaning up toxic waste and oil spills, reports Science Blog. This "is expected to pave the way for new sustainable products in a number of industrial applications," says nanotechnology professor Maria Stromme. Scientists have been trying—and failing—to cheaply create a dry, powdered form of magnesium carbonate since the early 1900s, earning it the nickname the "impossible material." Turns out, all they needed to do was use the same process they've been attempting for more than 100 years, but at three times the atmospheric pressure. When the scientists at the University of Uppsala inadvertently did this, they returned to the lab Monday morning to find a gel had formed. When heated to more than 158 degrees, that gel "solidifies and collapses into a white and coarse powder," they report, per Phys.org. "It became clear that we had indeed synthesized the material that previously had been claimed impossible to make," says Stromme. (It's not the only amazing discovery reported this week. See the best of those here.)