New Study may hold answers about Water on Mars

By Ajay Kadkol - 05 Apr '16 16:12PM

Scientists in a new explanation have said about how "gypsum" formed may change and formulate the way we process important building material as well as allow us to interpret past water availability on other planets such as Mars. Despite its importance, until now researchers have not understood how gypsum grows from ions in solutions.

The formation of gypsum, from concentrated aqueous solutions of calcium sulfate, was thought to be a simple, single-step process.Gypsum is an economically important mineral where it is extensively used as commercial construction material "Plaster of Paris" with a global production of around 100 billion kilograms per year, researchers said. It is also found on the surface of Mars.

Despite its importance, researchers have not understood about the growth of gypsum from ions in solutions. The formation of gypsum, from concentrated aqueous solutions of calcium sulfate, was thought to be a simple, single-step process. A multinational team of researchers including from the University of Leeds in the UK have now demonstrated about the formation of gypsum through a complex 4-step process. The understanding of this process enlightens the way to produce more energy efficient plaster.

In this 1st step, tiny sub-3 nanometers elongated particles form the primary building blocks bricks. In subsequent steps these bricks aggregate, self-assemble and rearrange themselves, and finally transform to gypsum crystals.

"Since plaster is normally produced by the energy-intensive heating of gypsum, such an approach would drastically reduce the cost of production, and significantly decrease the carbon footprint of the industry," Thomas Stawskyfrom university of Leeds said. "We know that gypsum is naturally found on Mars, so applying our current finding will also help us understand and predict the hydrological conditions at the time of gypsum formation on other planets," said Liane G Benning from University of Leeds. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.