Over the past few years, scientists have demonstrated
how cage-like, porous structures made of silicon and oxygen and
measuring only billionths of a meter in size can trap noble gasses
like argon, krypton, and xenon. However, for these silica nanocages
to be practically useful—for example, to improve the efficiency of
nuclear energy production—they need to be scaled up from their lab
versions. The scientists have now taken a step forward in bringing
this technology out of the lab and into the real world. As they
recently reported in Small, commercially available materials may
provide a potentially scalable platform for trapping noble
gasses.
