Quasi 1D Nanobelts from the Sustainable Liquid Exfoliation of Terrestrial Minerals for Future Martian based Electronics

TL;DR

This study presents a scalable, eco-friendly method to produce stable, high-aspect-ratio anhydrite nanobelts from terrestrial gypsum, with tunable electronic properties and promising applications in space electronics and energy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel liquid exfoliation process to create nanobelts from calcium sulfate minerals, enabling potential space applications and tunable electronic behaviors.

Findings

Nanobelts have a mesocrystal structure with nanoparticle constituents.

Electronic bandgap can be tuned between 2.2 eV and 4 eV.

Nanobelts show high performance in hydrogen evolution and reinforcement.

Abstract

The sky is the limit with regards to the societal impact nanomaterials can have on our lives. However, in this study we show that their potential is out of this world. The planet Mars has an abundant source of calcium sulfate minerals and in our work, we show that these deposits can be the basis of transformative nanomaterials to potentially support future space endeavors. Through a scalable eco-friendly liquid processing technique performed on two common terrestrial gypsum, our simple method presented a cost-efficient procedure to yield the commercially valuable intermediate phase of gypsum, known as bassanite. Through the liquid exfoliation of bassanite powders, suspensions of large aspect ratio anhydrite nanobelts with long-term stability were characterized through scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscopy showed nanobelts to have a mesocrystal structure, with distinct nanoparticle constituents making up the lattice. Unexpectedly, anhydrite nanobelts had remarkable electronic properties, namely a bandgap that was easily tuned between semiconducting (~2.2 eV) and insulating (~4 eV) behaviors through dimensional control measured via atomic force microscopy. To demonstrate the application potential of our nanobelts; optoelectronic, electrochemical and nanocomposite measurements were made. For the hydrogen evolution reaction and mechanical reinforcement, selenite-based anhydrite nanobelts displayed superlative performances.