British scientists from the University of Surrey have developed a biopaint containing Chroococcidiopsis cubana bacteria that effectively absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. According to researchers, this composition can be used both on Earth and in the harsh environment of Mars. The article was published in the scientific journal magazine Microbiology Spectrum (MS).
The bacterium Chroococcidiopsis cubana lives in deserts with conditions similar to those on Mars. Microorganisms survive even in extremely low light conditions thanks to their ability to photosynthesize.
Microbiologists have created a special coating based on latex and clay nanoparticles, in which microorganisms can safely exist. They then observed how the microbes coped with absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen for 30 days.
It turned out that the “living dye” stably releases oxygen at the rate of up to 0.4 grams of gas per gram of biomass per day for the whole month.
“Mechanically durable, ready-to-use biological coatings, or ‘living dyes,’ could help solve these problems by reducing water consumption in typically water-intensive bioreactor-based processes,” said study author and bacteriologist Susie Hingley-Wilson.
Previous scientists offered Use tiny wolffia algae to produce food and oxygen on Mars.