화학공학소재연구정보센터
Langmuir, Vol.27, No.7, 3294-3300, 2011
Chemical-Garden Formation, Morphology, and Composition. II. Chemical Gardens in Microgravity
We studied the growth of metal-ion silicate chemical gardens under Earth gravity (1 g) and microgravity (mu g) conditions. Identical sets of reaction chambers from an automated system (the Silicate Garden Habitat or SGHab) were used in both cases. The mu g experiment was performed on board the International Space Station (ISS) within a temperature-controlled setup that provided still and video images of the experiment downlinked to the ground. Calcium chloride, manganese chloride, cobalt chloride, and nickel sulfate were used as seed salts in sodium silicate solutions of several concentrations. The formation and growth of osmotic envelopes and microtubes was much slower under mu g conditions. In 1 g, buoyancy forces caused tubes to grow upward, whereas a random orientation for tube growth was found under mu g conditions.