ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the Puerto Rico NASA Space Grant Consortium, funded through the NASA Cooperative Agreement Grant Number 80NSSC20M0052, NASA-EPSCoR-International Space Station (ISS) Flight Opportunity Grant Number NNH14ZHA002C, NASA-RID Grant Number 80NSSC19M0049, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) CREST Center for Innovation Research and Education in Environmental Nanotechnology Grant Number 1736093. CRC acknowledges the STARs Award (2021) of the University of Texas System.
Author information
Affiliations
Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00925-2537
Camila Morales-Navas, Roberto A. Martínez-Rodríguez, Joesene J. Soto-Pérez, Pedro Trinidad, Eduardo Nicolau, and Carlos R. Cabrera
Institute of Electrochemistry, University of Alicante Ap. 99, 03080 Alicante, Spain
Francisco J. Vidal-Iglesias, José Solla-Gullón, and Juan M. Feliu
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas 79968
Armando Peña and Carlos R. Cabrera
NuVant Systems, Inc., 130 N. West Street Crown Point, Indiana 46307
Toshko Tzvetkov, Jonathan Doan, and Eugene S. Smotkin
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Eugene S. Smotkin
Contributions
- Dr. Camila Morales-Navas designed, selected, and tested the hardware assembly and supporting frame. Dr. Morales integrated the hardware parts and led the contribution of each company that participated in the project. She worked hand to hand with Nanoracks, NuVant, University of Alicante, and the University of Puerto Rico over the years to guarantee the success of the project. She developed the time sequence of the experiments and tested every part of the system on safety, security, and compatibility. She made the last assembly before launch, processed the raw data received from Nanoracks, and analyzed the electrochemical data on-ground and on-orbit.
- Dr. Roberto Martínez Rodríguez, designed the electrochemical parameters to carry out cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometric experiments. Dr. Martinez characterized the platinum catalytic materials and tested the robustness and reproducibility of the electrodes in ammonia solutions.
- Dr. Francisco Vidal-Iglesias, Dr. José Solla-Gullón, and Dr. Juan Feliu selected the screen-printed electrodes and electrochemical cells that were used in the project. They were the mentors at the University of Alicante.
- Mr. Armando Peña-Duarte tested the Autonomous Electrochemical System after it returned from the ISS. He evaluated the integrity of the connections, pumps, and electrochemical cells on-ground when the system returned. He also compared the hardware performance before and after on-orbit experiments.
- Dr. Joesene Soto-Pérez Analyzed the chronoamperometric experiments on-ground and on-orbit. He helped with commentaries and discussions related to the project.
- Mr. Pedro Trinidad-Pérez helped in 3D printing of multiple versions of the plastic protector frame used in the project.
- Dr. Toshko Tzvetkov and Dr. Jonathan Doan made the software design and programming used in the Autonomous Electrochemical System. He tested the circuits and data collection of the potentiostat.
- Dr. Eugene Smotkin guided the software and hardware construction of the potentiostat and served as a mentor to Dr. Camila Morales-Navas at Northeastern University during the computer-aided design of the protective frame.
- Dr. Carlos R. Cabrera and Dr. Eduardo Nicolau worked on the research design, NASA and Nanoracks requirements, and mentoring Dr. Camila Morales-Navas.
Corresponding author
Correspondence to [email protected] and [email protected]
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Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests
Data Availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Additional Information/Supplementary information
The online version contains supplementary material available through npj Microgavity.