ZARM Talk by Camilla Tossi
How to survive on Mars, when resupply from Earth is impossible? On April 10 at 2 pm, Camilla Tossi explains a promising method to transform water and CO₂ into oxygen, hydrogen, and valuable carbon compounds — using just sunlight!
ZARM Talk by Camilla Tossi
- Date: 10 April 2025
- Time: 2 pm
- Location: ZARM
Nanocatalyst synthesis in microgravity conditions
An uttermost priority of human space exploration is the sustainable fabrication and recycling of materials, mitigating the consequences of an impossible resupply of resources from Earth. Moreover, the long-term missions to Moon and Mars will require in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies to synthesise materials in harsh environments and reduced gravitation. This opens a path for research on the fabrication and synthesis of materials that have potential for being utilised in energy conversion technologies in these environments.
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) energy conversion has been continuously investigated here at ZARM, due to its potential in converting water and carbon dioxide using sunlight into oxygen, hydrogen, and useful carbon compounds. Further, the monolithic design of PEC devices, which include integrated semiconductor-electrocatalyst systems, offers significant advantages for long-term space missions, such as a compact and lightweight payload. Particularly important is hereby the choice of electrocatalyst material (metals or metal oxides) for the respective anticipated redox reaction to minimize activation polarization overpotentials of the device.
Since microgravity is known to affect the synthesis of nanomaterials by inducing increased crystallinity and increased porosity – which are attractive qualities in a catalyst material – Camilla investigates the effect of this environment on the synthesis of metal and metal oxide nanoelectrocatalysts via photoelectrodeposition. The performance of the synthesized catalyst materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting is assessed in gravity and microgravity, in terms of both material quality and conversion efficiency.
