Scientists create “impossible material”—dubbed Upsalite—by accident

Jennifer Rouse

Researchers in Uppsala, Sweden accidentally left a reaction running over the weekend and ended up resolving a century-old chemistry problem. Their work has led to the development of new material, dubbed Upsalite, with remarkable water-binding properties. Upsalite promises to find applications in everything from humidity control at home to chemical manufacturing in industry.

Maria Strømme and colleagues at Uppsala University, whose work appears in the journal PLoS one, have modified a procedure dating back to 1908 to make a powdered and dry form of magnesium carbonate (MgCO₃). The reaction ingredients are all cheaply available: magnesium oxide (MgO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), dissolved in methanol, a common industrial solvent. The result is pure, dry MgCO₃.

Dry in this case means very dry. In the chemical sense, it means void of almost any water molecules at all.