has the oxygen filter from water membrane been created yet? ya know like in Star Wars, James Bond? SCUBA yeah?

Answer 1

No, it's not been done, at least not in a practical sense. Yes you can argue that fish do it, but the question asks if man has.
As to some of the references I see regarding rebreathers. Not the same principle at all, they rely on a chemical reaction to scrub CO2 from the breathing mix and the addition of O2 and dillutent to maintain a non toxic breathing gas at various depths Totally different from what the question asks.
Edit: to David in Kenai. Your "limited to .21 atmospheres" is not correct. If that were the case I'd be dead a thousand times over, breathing my 6% mix. You're forgetting Dalton's Law and the fact that the 21% can kill you dead in a heartbeat when inhaled at depth What would normally kill you in one atmosphere as hypoxic, is just peachy down there..

Answer 2

As the first answerer said, evolution has already invented it. Alas, your ancestors opted to crawl up the beach and leave all that behind.

There are membranes to separate such similar sized species as N2 and O2 (gaseous), so that isn't the problem. Rather that you need a gradient, a pressure difference across the membrane. In gas separation, that is provided by air pumps. That would be tricky to power with a reasonable amount of batteries for a diver.

The fish have a big advantage (as do we, within our own lungs) that diffusion across any layer goes up A LOT when the chemical being diffused is absorbed/reacted/uptaken within the layer. Our hemoglobin does that, as does the fish's.

So it isn't just a membrane with the right pore size (that's been done), but either a lot of pumping or a VERY sophiscated membrane with a highly reversible chemical reaction going on inside that can sorb and then desorb the O2 without a lot of pumping or pressure changes.

You, are, I believe, proposing to go from dissolved oxygen, to gaseous oxygen, into our lungs in order to go back to dissolved oxygen. Far more efficient would be something like a kidney diaylsis machine that took our own blood, circulated it through a membrane and returned it to us re-oxygenated. (Like gills on a fish!) I can imagine a few practical, medical, legal, financial, and sterility issues, though.

Additional, we're set up for 0.21 atmospheres of oxygen. Oxygen in water is less than that, especially if sea life or decaying material are sucking it up. You might be limited to cold, well oxygenated trout streams.

Until power sources get a lot better (and then you could just do electrolysis), a rebreather is as close as you can get. Those, with a modest sized tank, gives many hours underwater.

Answer 3

I think it's also relevant to point out that most (all?) gilled species that can extract the oxygen from water to meet their metabolic needs are cold blooded. Warm blooded species are all air breathing. I doubt that we could ever get a small unit like in "James Bond" that would yield enough oxygen to fuel our bodies.

Answer 4

We have not invented that yet but there are some plans for it. what we do have is a liqued heavy in oxygen that if you fill a mak with it and let in into your lungs you can "breath" it. If you have seen the movie ABYSS its the stuff they use at the end of the movie, it actually exists!

Answer 5

Actually, a Israeli inventor recently came up win a device that does away with those oxygen tanks and allows for oxygen to be removed from water.

Also, re-breathers are also available that allow for exhaled air to be reused.

Answer 6

This is exactly what fish have.

They are called gills.