Projects per year
Abstract
Cerium has many modern applications such as in renewable energies and the biosynthesis of nanomaterials. In this research, natural struvite was solubilized by Aspergillus niger and the biomass-free struvite leachate was investigated for its ability to recover cerium. It was shown that struvite was completed solubilized following 2 weeks of fungal growth, which released inorganic phosphate (P i) from the mineral by the production of oxalic acid. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that crystals with distinctive morphologies were formed in the natural struvite leachate after mixing with Ce 3+. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the formation of cerium phosphate hydrate [Ce(PO 4)·H 2O] at lower Ce concentrations and a mixture of phosphate and cerium oxalate decahydrate [Ce 2(C 2O 4) 3·10H 2O] at higher Ce concentrations. The formation of these biogenic Ce minerals leads to the removal of > 99% Ce from solution. Thermal decomposition experiments showed that the biogenic Ce phosphates could be transformed into a mixture of CePO 4 and CeO 2 (cerianite) after heat treatment at 1000 °C. These results provide a new perspective of the fungal biotransformation of soluble REE species using struvite leachate, and also indicate the potential of using the recovered REE as biomaterial precursors with possible applications in the biosynthesis of novel nanomaterials, elemental recycling and biorecovery. Key points: • Cerium was recovered using a struvite leachate produced by A. niger. • Oxalic acid played a major role in struvite solubilization and Ce phosphate biorecovery. • Resulting nanoscale mineral products could serve as a precursor for Ce oxide synthesis.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 821-833 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology |
Volume | 106 |
Early online date | 4 Jan 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2022 |
Keywords
- Aspergillus niger
- Cerium
- Phosphate
- Rare earth elements
- Struvite
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
- Biotechnology
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Dive into the research topics of 'Solubilization of struvite and biorecovery of cerium by Aspergillus niger'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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Tellurium and Selenium Cycling and Supply (Joint with Universities of Leicester, Durham, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Aberdeen and Open University and Natural History Museum)
Gadd , G. M. (Investigator)
1/05/15 → 4/03/20
Project: Research
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COG3: The Geology, Geometallurgy and Geomicrobiology of Cobalt Resources Leading to New Product Streams (joint with Natural History Museum and Universities of Manchester, Bangor, Exeter, Loughborough and Southampton and Industrial Partner)
Gadd , G. M. (Investigator)
1/05/15 → 31/03/21
Project: Research