title: From Chemical Gardens to Fuel Cells: Generation of Electrical Potential and Current Across Self-Assembling Iron Mineral Membranes.
abstract: We examine the electrochemical gradients that form across chemical garden membranes and investigate how self-assembling, out-of-equilibrium inorganic precipitates-mimicking in some ways those generated in far-from-equilibrium natural systems-can generate electrochemical energy. Measurements of electrical potential and current were made across membranes precipitated both by injection and solution interface methods in iron-sulfide and iron-hydroxide reaction systems. The battery-like nature of chemical gardens was demonstrated by linking multiple experiments in series which produced sufficient electrical energy to light an external light-emitting diode (LED). This work paves the way for determining relevant properties of geological precipitates that may have played a role in hydrothermal redox chemistry at the origin of life, and materials applications that utilize the electrochemical properties of self-organizing chemical systems.
authors.affiliation: NASA Astrobiology Institute, JPL Icy Worlds, Pasadena, CA (USA). laura.m.barge@jpl.nasa.gov.|Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (USA). laura.m.barge@jpl.nasa.gov.
authors.forename: Laura M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Barge
authors.affiliation: NASA Astrobiology Institute, JPL Icy Worlds, Pasadena, CA (USA).|Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (USA).
authors.forename: Yeghegis
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Abedian
authors.affiliation: NASA Astrobiology Institute, JPL Icy Worlds, Pasadena, CA (USA).|Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (USA).
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: NASA Astrobiology Institute, JPL Icy Worlds, Pasadena, CA (USA).|Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (USA).
authors.forename: Ivria J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Doloboff
authors.affiliation: Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, 18100 Armilla, Granada (Spain).
authors.forename: Julyan H E
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cartwright
authors.affiliation: NASA Astrobiology Institute, JPL Icy Worlds, Pasadena, CA (USA).|Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (USA).
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Kidd
authors.affiliation: NASA Astrobiology Institute, JPL Icy Worlds, Pasadena, CA (USA).|Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (USA).
authors.forename: Isik
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kanik
keywords: chemical gardens; hydrothermal chimneys; inorganic membranes; iron sulfide; membrane potentials