Andrey Filippenko from RANS invented the technology of breathing in fluorocarbon fluids

Yesterday, Russian scientists showed another invention of Russian scientists - the technology of liquid breathing, which supposedly allows you to breathe under water. Instead of water in this case, a special liquid is used. According to television channels, this is a “secret Russian development”.

The inventor is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, kmn, winner of the Prize of the Society of Shipbuilders of Great Britain Andrei Filippenko. He has been engaged in this project since the days of the USSR, and finally he achieved a demonstration at the highest level.

At a special demonstration, an experiment with the flooding of a Dachshund dog was conducted by two scientists for the President of Serbia, Alexander Vučić. This was only one of the innovative Russian developments that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin showed to Vuchich.

During the experiment, the dachshund was placed in a flask with a special liquid saturated with oxygen. To do this, scientists had to try a lot, because the dog actively resisted.


Two scientists are trying to stuff a dachshund into a flask with fluorocarbon liquid

After about 10 seconds, they tried to extract it, which was also not easy - as a result, the dachshund was taken out by the hind legs. In general, the dog’s head spent about 20 seconds in the liquid. Having taken out a practically motionless dachshund, it was lowered upside down over the bathtub and the fluid that had got into the lungs was drained. Then wiped with a towel. When the dog fully recovered, she was shown to reporters and officials as proof that she really “breathed” underwater. Vučić stroked the dog and noted that he was impressed by what he saw.



In an interview with the RenTV channel, Andrei Filippenko explained that the liquid “looks like water, it is transparent and colorless, but consists of carbon and fluorine.”

The first thought may be that Andrei Filippenko means tetrafluoromethane (chemical formula CF ₄) Is one of the simplest fluorocarbons. In particular, this substance is used as a component of breathing mixtures for deep-sea diving. Contacting tetrafluoromethane with a flame in excess of oxygen produces toxic gases; in the presence of water, hydrogen fluoride is obtained (in the H ₂ F ₂ dimer ) - a colorless mobile volatile liquid that mixes with water in any respect to form hydrofluoric (hydrofluoric) acid. According to the encyclopedia, hydrogen fluoride forms an azeotropic mixture with water with a concentration of 35.4% HF.

In addition to tetrafluoromethane, there are other fluorocarbons . Their formulas are similar to hydrocarbons, only all hydrogen atoms are replaced by fluorine atoms, as is the case with tetrafluoromethane (methane analogue CH ₄, only with fluorine instead of hydrogen).

Higher and especially polycyclic fluorocarbons have an abnormally high ability to dissolve gases , including oxygen. Actually, it was this chemical property of polycyclic fluorocarbons that a scientist from the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences could try to use. But given that he has been conducting experiments since the Soviet era, that is, about 30 years, we can assume that these experiments were mostly unsuccessful.

It is difficult to say exactly what Filippenko invented, because he did not tell the details of his invention, and he could not find scientific works on this subject.

According to representatives of the project from the Advanced Research Foundation, the use of such a liquid can save the lives of crews of sunken submarines. From a depth above 100 m, it is impossible to quickly rise to the surface due to the decompression sickness, but “if you fill the person’s lungs with this liquid, they will not compress, which will allow you to quickly rise to the surface”.

“The technology here is very interesting,” said Andrei Filippenko. - Indeed, it is very important for underwater affairs. And here I can say that we are ahead of the rest. ”

Development funding is provided by the Advanced Research Foundation from the Russian budget. Representatives of the Foundation say that the technology has many other uses: it is saving premature people, helping people with burns of the lungs. And if the diver has such a liquid in cylinders instead of oxygen, this will significantly increase the time it is under water and "will allow you to dive to hitherto unprecedented depths." The project is led by Fedor Arsenyev.

FPI representatives also explained that the main problem in liquid breathing is psychological. For such "breathing" the first thing you need to choke, that is, to draw fluid into the lungs.

Rogozin emphasized that this is only one of the FPI projects. There are others: “(This) is the very tomorrow we are striving for,” said the deputy chairman of the government.