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Published on: June 21, 2015
Reduction of uranium(VI) phosphate during growth of the thermophilic bacterium Thermoterrabacterium ferrireducens
T V Khijniak1, A I Slobodkin, V Coker
1The Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Science and The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
The thermophilic, gram-positive bacterium Thermoterrabacterium ferrireducens coupled organotrophic growth to the reduction of sparingly soluble U(VI) phosphate. X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy analysis identified the electron acceptor in a defined medium as U(VI) phosphate [uramphite; (NH4)(UO2)(PO4) . 3H2O], while the U(IV)-containing precipitate formed during bacterial growth was identified as ningyoite [CaU(PO4)2 . H2O]. This is the first report of microbial reduction of a largely insoluble U(VI) compound.
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