A group of Chinese scientists has devised a robotic artificial intelligence (AI) chemist capable of generating oxygen from water on Mars using meteorites from the Red Planet. The shortage of oxygen, crucial for prolonged survival, presents a significant challenge for human migration to Mars. The recent identification of water activity on Mars has offered hope.
Researchers have explored the idea of breaking down water to generate oxygen through electrochemical water oxidation driven by solar power, aided by oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. The difficulty lies in finding a method to synthesise these catalysts on Mars using local materials, eliminating the need to transport them from Earth, a costly endeavour.
To tackle this challenge, a team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a robotic AI chemist capable of automatically synthesising and optimising OER catalysts from Martian meteorites.
"The AI chemist innovatively synthesised OER catalyst using Martian material based on interdisciplinary cooperation," stated Prof. Luo Yi, the lead scientist of the USTC team.
Their findings were published in the journal Nature Synthesis.
Operating under unmanned conditions, the AI chemist produced an exceptional catalyst using five types of Martian meteorites. The catalyst demonstrated steady operation for over 550,000 seconds at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and an overpotential of 445.1 mV.
In a further test at -37 degrees Celsius, Mars's temperature, the catalyst consistently produced oxygen without any apparent degradation.
Remarkably, the AI chemist completed the intricate optimisation of catalysts within two months, a task that would take a human chemist 2,000 years.
“In the future, humans can establish an oxygen factory on Mars with the assistance of an AI chemist,” said Jiang. Only 15 hours of solar irradiation is needed to produce sufficient oxygen concentration required for human survival.
“This breakthrough technology brings us one step closer to achieving our dream of living on Mars,” he said.
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