Scientists in Korea and Japan have unveiled a remarkable “breathing” crystal that can repeatedly absorb and release oxygen, almost like living lungs.
Unlike earlier fragile materials, this crystal is stable, reversible, and functions under mild conditions, making it a game-changer for clean energy and smart technologies.
Crystal That Breathes: A Breakthrough in Clean Energy Materials
A group of researchers in Korea and Japan has identified a completely new kind of crystal that can actually “breathe.” The material is able to take in and release oxygen over and over again at relatively low temperatures. This unusual property could open the door to major advances in clean energy systems, including fuel cells, smart windows that regulate heat, and next-generation thermal devices.
The material is a specially engineered metal oxide made of strontium, iron, and cobalt. What makes it remarkable is its resilience: when heated in a simple gas environment, the crystal lets go of oxygen and then draws it back in without breaking down. This cycle can be repeated many times, making the crystal well suited for practical technologies.
From Lab Discovery to Real-World Potential
The remarkable research was led by Professor Hyoungjeen Jeen of the Department of Physics at Pusan National University in Korea, in collaboration with Professor Hiromichi Ohta of the Research Institute for Electronic Science at Hokkaido University in Japan. Their results were published in Nature Communications on August 15, 2025.
“It is like giving the crystal lungs and it can inhale and exhale oxygen on command,” says Prof. Jeen. The ability to control oxygen in this way is vital for devices such as solid oxide fuel cells, which can generate electricity from hydrogen with very low emissions. It is also important for thermal transistors, which channel heat in the same way that switches guide electricity, and for smart windows that can automatically adjust how much heat passes through them depending on outside conditions.
Why This Material Stands Apart
Until now, most materials that could do this kind of oxygen control were too fragile or operated only at harsh conditions, such as extremely high temperatures. This new material works under milder conditions and remains stable.
“This finding is striking in two ways: only cobalt ions are reduced, and the process leads to the formation of an entirely new but stable crystal structure,” explains Prof. Jeen (see the figure above). They also showed that the material could return to its original form when oxygen was reintroduced, proving that the process is fully reversible.
“This is a major step towards the realization of smart materials that can adjust themselves in real time,” says Prof. Ohta. “The potential applications range from clean energy to electronics and even eco-friendly building materials.”
Reference: “Selective reduction in epitaxial SrFe0.5Co0.5O2.5 and its reversibility” by Joonhyuk Lee, Yu-Seong Seo, Krishna Chaitanya Pitike, Gowoon Kim, Sangkyun Ryu, Hyeyun Chung, Su Ryang Park, Sangmoon Yoon, Younghak Kim, Valentino R. Cooper, Hiromichi Ohta, Jinhyung Cho and Hyoungjeen Jeen, 15 August 2025, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62612-1
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4 Comments
Unlike earlier fragile materials, this crystal is stable, reversible, and functions under mild conditions. They can repeatedly absorb and release oxygen, almost like living lungs.
VERY GOOD.
What would happen if they could repeatedly absorb and release electrical current?
With advancements in experimental techniques and theoretical frameworks, Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) is expected to become an important paradigm for explaining complex physical phenomena by around 2030, bringing revolutionary breakthroughs to next-generation information technologies and energy materials. As a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field, future research in TVT will exhibit three major trends: precision in fundamental theories, intelligent material design, and diversified technological applications.
If researchers are interested, please browse https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1942195688579510790 (If the link is available).
Dude, no one is ever going to pay attention to your ill-conceived “theory.” And no one is going to visit your pathetic little spam site. Get over it.
Thank you for your attention.
You are right.
This is one of the reasons why the so-called peer-reviewed publications spread pseudoscience without knowing what is Dirty, Ugly, and Shameful.
An entire generation has been severely misled, poisoned and fooled by so-called peer-reviewed publications. In today’s physics, the so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others—stubbornly insist on and promote the following:
1. Even though θ and τ particles exhibit differences in experiments, physics can claim they are the same particle. This is science.
2. Even though topological vortices and antivortices have identical structures and opposite rotational directions, physics can define their structures and directions as entirely different. This is science.
3. Even though two sets of cobalt-60 rotate in opposite directions and experiments reveal asymmetry, physics can still define them as mirror images of each other. This is science.
4. Even though vortex structures are ubiquitous—from cosmic accretion disks to particle spins—physics must insist that vortex structures do not exist and require verification. Only the particles that like God, Demonic, or Angelic are the most fundamental structures of the universe. This is science.
5. Even though everything occupies space and maintains its existence in time, physics must still debate and insist on whether space exists and whether time is a figment of the human mind. This is science.
6. Even though space, with its non-stick, incompressible, and isotropic characteristics, provides a solid foundation for the development of physics, physics must still insist that the ideal fluid properties of space do not exist. This is science.
And so on.
The so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others openly define differences as sameness, sameness as differences, existence as nonexistence, and nonexistence as existence—all while deceiving and fooling the public with so-called “impact factors (IF),” never knowing what shame is.
The universe is not a God, nor is it merely Particles. Moreover, it is not Algebra, Formulas, or Fractions. The universe is the superposition, deflection, entanglement, and locking of spacetime vortex geometries, the interaction and balance of topological vortices and their fractal structures. Topological invariants are the identical intrinsic properties between two isomorphic topological spaces. Different civilizations may create distinct mathematical codes or tools to describe the universality and specificity of these topological invariants under different physical laws.
Topology provides stability blueprints, but specific physics (spatial features, gravitational collapse, fluid viscosity, quantum measurement) dictates vortex generation, evolution, and decay. If researchers are interested in this, please visit https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1933484562941457487 and https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1925124100134790589.
It’s always “could”. It’s never “will” or “does”. None of these things they report on from the labs ever materialises into some kind of practical utility. It’s all just hype and something for trashy sites like this one too write about.
SciTechDaily is really just a scientific yellow press.