An AI-driven robotic chemist, developed by Chinese scientists, has automatically synthesized and intelligently optimized catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction from Martian meteorites, offering a highly efficient and energy-conserving solution for the production of oxygen on Mars.
Using a machine-learning model, the AI chemist automatically and swiftly identifies the optimal catalyst formula from more than three million possible compositions. This groundbreaking discovery demonstrates the feasibility of the AI chemist in the automated synthesis of chemicals and materials for Mars exploration, according to the study published in the journal Nature Synthesis recently.
Living on Mars requires the ability to synthesize chemicals that are essential for survival, such as oxygen, from local Martian resources. However, this is a challenging task.
The study has successfully verified that AI can automatically develop new materials, which is expected to help oxygen production, base construction, and food production on extraterrestrial planets, and synthesize more chemicals from Martian resources to facilitate deep space exploration by humans, according to Luo Yi, director of Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, USTC.
