NASA Study: Non-biologic Processes Don’t Fully Explain Mars Organics - UNIVERSE

In a new study, researchers say that non-biological sources they considered could not fully account for the abundance of organic compounds in a sample collected on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover.

A self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover taken on June 15, 2018, when a Martian dust storm had reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover’s location in Gale Crater.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

In March 2025, scientists reported identifying small amounts of decane, undecane, and dodecane in a rock sample analyzed in the chemistry lab aboard Curiosity. These were the largest organic compounds found on Mars, with researchers hypothesizing that they could be fragments of fatty acids preserved in the ancient mudstone in Gale Crater. On Earth, fatty acids are produced mostly by life, though they can be made through geologic processes, too.

It was not possible to determine from Curiosity’s data alone whether or not the molecules they found were made by living things, which led to a follow-on study that evaluated known non-biological sources of these organic molecules — such as delivery by meteorites smashing into the Martian surface — to see if they could account for the amounts previously found.

Reporting on Feb. 4 in the journal Astrobiology, researchers say that as the non-biological sources they considered could not fully explain the abundance of organic compounds, it is therefore reasonable to hypothesize that living things could have formed them.

To reach their conclusion, scientists combined lab radiation experiments, mathematical modeling, and Curiosity data to “rewind the clock” about 80 million years — the length of time the rock would have been exposed on the Martian surface. This allowed them to estimate how much organic material would have been present before being destroyed by long-term exposure to cosmic radiation: far more than typical non-biological processes could produce.

The team says more study is needed to better understand how quickly organic molecules break down in Mars-like rock under Mars-like conditions — and before any conclusions can be reached about the absence or presence of life.

By Lonnie Shekhtman
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 

Source: NASA Study: Non-biologic Processes Don’t Fully Explain Mars Organics - NASA Science

Batteries from rust? Carbon spheres filled with iron oxide deliver high storage capacity - Engineering - Energy & Green Tech

Credit: Chemistry of Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5c02442

Conventional lithium-ion batteries contain problematic substances such as nickel and cobalt, and the solvents used to coat the electrode materials are also toxic. Materials scientists at Saarland University are therefore working to develop environmentally friendly alternatives. By introducing finely dispersed iron oxide into tiny, highly porous, hollow carbon spheres developed by Professor Michael Elsaesser at the University of Salzburg, the Saarbrücken team has achieved some very promising results: higher storage capacities using materials that are both readily available and environmentally far less problematic. These results have now been published in Chemistry of Materials.

Anyone who has ever been to Salzburg in Austria will be acquainted with Mozartkugeln—the famous chocolate-coated balls of marzipan and nougat. And Mozartkugeln are a simple way of imagining the hollow carbon spheres that were developed by researchers at Salzburg University and are now being used at Saarland University to advance lithium-ion battery technology. Known as carbon spherogels, these novel materials are nanometer-sized units around 250 nm in diameter that offer a large surface area and high electrochemical capacity.

"The challenge for us is to use chemical synthesis to fill the cavity inside these spheres with suitable metal oxides," explains materials scientist Stefanie Arnold. After a set of initial experiments with titanium dioxide, whose ability to store and release lithium ions was relatively low, the team turned their attention to iron oxide, which most of us commonly refer to as rust.

"Iron has a number of advantages: it is abundant worldwide, it offers—in theory at least—a high storage capacity, and it's easy to recycle," says Arnold, a postdoctoral researcher at Saarland University working with Professor Volker Presser, Professor of Energy Materials. Using a scalable synthesis methodology based on iron lactate, the Salzburg team was able to integrate different quantities of iron into the carbon framework of the hollow spheres, producing robust porous networks with evenly distributed iron nanoparticles.

"What was particularly interesting was that the storage capacity (i.e., the amount of electric charge that can be reversibly stored and released per gram of active electrode material) continued to increase while the battery was in use. The longer the battery was used, the better it performed. This is because the elemental metallic iron in the nanoparticles first has to react with oxygen to form iron oxide.

"This process of electrochemical activation of the iron embedded in the carbon spherogel matrix is not immediate but happens progressively. It takes around 300 charge-discharge cycles until all the cavities in the carbon spheres are filled with iron oxide and the maximum storage capacity is reached," explains Arnold.

Materials scientist Stefanie Arnold is searching for environmentally friendly alternatives for energy storage. Credit: Oliver Dietze, Universität des Saarlandes

'Rust-based batteries' are still a work in progress

However, further research is still needed before this mechanism can be used on an industrial scale. The activation process needs to be faster so that batteries can reach their maximum storage capacity sooner. In addition, the iron oxide-filled carbon spherogels are currently used as the battery anode; a suitable cathode still needs to be developed to obtain a complete cell.

"We are confident that our approach will facilitate the development of environmentally friendly buffer storage systems for renewable energy," says Prof. Presser, who also heads the Research Department Energy Materials at the INM—Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken. The new material will also be tested for sodium-ion batteries, which Chinese automotive manufacturers are already deploying.

"These materials form a versatile technology platform that allows a wide variety of other substances to be integrated in situ into the spherogels in a single synthesis step, opening up opportunities for a wide range of technological applications," adds Elsässer.

Developing new recycling methods and a climate-friendly energy supply

As part of the EnFoSaar project, Arnold is also investigating how lithium can be recovered from batteries and how future batteries should be designed so that they can be dismantled on an industrial scale. "We need efficient recycling methods and closed-loop material systems to minimize resource consumption and reduce waste in the battery supply chain," says Arnold.

The EnFoSaar project aims to develop innovative approaches for a climate-friendly energy supply and to drive the transformation of Saarland's energy industry and the associated research landscape by developing innovative, scientifically sound, and practically implementable methodologies. 

Provided by Saarland University 

by Friederike Meyer zu Tittingdorf, Saarland University

edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Batteries from rust? Carbon spheres filled with iron oxide deliver high storage capacity