Marine biology requires new line of inquiry in materials research
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MATERIAL MATTERS
Marine biology requires new line of inquiry in materials research By Zhen Zhang, Bruce H. Robison, and Shriram Ramanathan
A
lthough oceans cover nearly 70% of the planet, they comprise the least understood of Earth’s major ecosystems. Oceans have been an important sustainer of life on Earth and promise vast future potential for overcoming current grand challenges in energy, food, global climate, and sustainability. However, current knowledge of oceanic ecosystems is limited by the complexity involved in exploring and sensing harsh marine environments.
Historically, the needs of the military to monitor surface and undersea vessels drove early developments in acoustic and magnetic field sensors,1,2 and sonar has long supported the commercial fishing industry. Oceanographers require information on physical and chemical properties such as temperature, salinity, oxygen concentration, acidity, and pressure to understand climate change effects. There is also great interest among marine biologists to assess and understand different
forms of life at various depths of the ocean and how the local populations interact and change over time. Sampling even a small fraction of the planet’s vast oceans requires the design of sensors that can be deployed from ships and robots and on autonomous vehicles or submersible floats that operate long-term. They also have the ability to transmit data directly or by satellite. For example, the Argo project—a global array of 3800 free-drifting profiling floats—has successfully collected basic information such as ocean temperature and salinity over the past two a b c decades by deploying thousands of sensors in various oceans across the planet.3 Designing functional materials to operate in ocean 400 μm environments, such as for sensing applications, pred sents a formidable challenge. The materials have to be corrosion-resistant, but should 10 μm not form passive layers that inhibit information transfer or sensing capability. e f h Sensors must be pressure+- 0.5V — tolerant and resistant to biofouling, as well as use low levels of power. Preferably, +- 0.05V — they should be calibrationstable over extended periods g of time to be deployable on +- 0.005V — autonomous platforms. Researchers can look at nature to better guide materials design. Over millions of years, in order to adapt to The electroreception organ of the elasmobranch species and its emulation by oxide quantum materials. (a) A skate’s challenging marine environdorsal profile. (b) Ampullary organ canals stained by Alcian blue. (c) Ampullary organs with nerve fibers attached. ments, marine animals have (d) Image of electrosensory cells. (e) Electric-field-induced hydrogenation of SmNiO3. (f–g) Electronic structure of Ni 3d orbital of SmNiO3 in (g) pristine and (f) hydrogenated states where electrons become localized. evolved remarkable sen(h) Modulation of electrical resistivity of SmNiO3 in saltwater after applying bias potential (±0.5~±0.005 V) over sory systems such as echoseveral cycles. (a–d) Images are repr
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