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Selective catalytic reduction of NOx by NH3 (NH3-SCR)

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year:2020Text Size:【big | medium | small】  【print
author:X. Han, E.J. Tomaszewski, J. Sorwat, Y. Pan, A. Kappler, J.M. Byrne
    Green rust (GR) may have been a primary mineral phase during the deposition of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides in Precambrian iron formations (IFs). However, the transformation pathways of GR into secondary mineral phases in IFs remain unclear. One potentially relevant mechanism on early Earth is anoxygenic phototrophic microbial oxidation of either dissolved Fe(II) or Fe(II)-bearing minerals that leads to the formation of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides. It is currently unknown whether phototrophic Fe(II)-oxidisers can access lattice Fe(II) in GR. Here, we studied microbial Fe(II) oxidation of carbonate green rust by two anoxygenic phototrophic Fe(II)-oxidising bacteria, Rhodobacter ferrooxidans SW2 and Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1. We found that these two species could oxidise GR to a short range ordered Fe(III) oxyhydroxide, likely ferrihydrite, with faster GR oxidation rates by SW2 than by TIE-1. These results suggest that anoxygenic phototropic Fe(II) oxidation of GR can contribute to the formation of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides and thus, this process could have been an important mechanism for Precambrian IFs deposition in ancient oceans.