College
Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences
Date of Last Revision
2023-05-03 21:23:34
Major
Environmental Science
Honors Course
3370-497-003
Number of Credits
6
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Date of Expected Graduation
Fall 2020
Abstract
Many celestial bodies within our solar system may have habitable environments due to the presence of liquid water. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, may be habitable because of its liquid ocean and other potentially biologically favorable conditions. The ocean on Europa is hypothesized to contain large amounts of oxidants and low pH due to the radiolytically processed icy ocean shell. This suspected environment on Europa is similar to the composition of acid mine drainage on Earth, which can house microbial communities in environments of extreme acidity. Similar chemical reactions in Europa’s ocean may occur to produce the appropriate reduction-oxidation gradients to support a small biomass. On Europa, the reactive oxygen species, could react with dissolved Fe(II)in the ocean, which creates Fe(III) oxides that can be reduced by the sediment on the ocean floor. This reaction could produce sufficient energy to support life if oxidants can be delivered to reducing sediments. This research aims to create oxygen slow releasing materials to mimic an iron snow reaction in an environment that is hypothesized to be similar to Europa’s ocean composition. To do this, a synthetic acid mine drainage (SAMD) solution was created to mimic the hypothesized environment of Europa’s ocean and different oxygen slow releasing treatments were performed to examine the rate of Fe(II) oxidation. The results suggested that the prepared oxygen slow releasing materials did oxidize Fe(II). The oxygen releasing compounds used in this study have important implications for future research on reduction-oxidation gradients in environments similar to Europa’s ocean.
Research Sponsor
John Senko
First Reader
Nita Sahai
Second Reader
Caleb Holyoke
Honors Faculty Advisor
John Peck
Recommended Citation
Greco, Danae, "Development of a Synthesis Method for O2-releasing Compound for Microbiological Experiments" (2020). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1242.
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1242
Included in
Environmental Sciences Commons, Geochemistry Commons, Geology Commons, Microbiology Commons