Interactions between Bacillus mucilaginosus and silicate minerals(weathered adamellite and feldspar):Weathering rate,products,and reaction mechanisms

Bacillus mucilaginosus is a common soil bacterium,and usually used as a model bacterium in studying microbe-mineral interactions.Several reaction mechanisms of B.mucilaginosus weathering silicate minerals were proposed.However,the molecule mechanisms and detailed processes were still unclear.In this paper,bacterium-mineral interactions were studied in terms of variations in pH value over the experimental period,variations in mineral composition,weathering rates of silicate minerals and volatile metabolites in the culture medium,etc.,to further explore the bacterium-mineral interaction mechanisms.The results showed that B.mucilaginosus could enhance silicate mineral weathering obviously.The weathering rates were quite different for various kinds of silicate minerals,and the weathering rate of weathered adamellite could reach 150 mg/m2/d.Although B.mucilaginosus produced little acidic substance,pH in the microenvironment of bacterium-mineral complex might be far lower than that of the circumjacent environment;a large amount of acetic acid was found in the metabolites,and was likely to play an important role as a ligand.These results appear to suggest that acidolysis and ligand degradation are the main mechanisms of B.mucilaginosus dissolving silicate minerals,the formation of bacterium-mineral complexes is the necessary condition for the bacteria weathering silicate minerals,and extracelluar polysaccharides played important roles in bacterium-mineral interaction processes by forming bacterium-mineral complexes and maintaining the spe-cial physicochemical properties of microenvironment.

Ecological effects of the microbial weathering of silicate minerals

1 Introduction Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humankind in the 21st century.Studying,and utilising,the carbon sink caused by the weathering of silicate minerals has been a key research focus for

Surface modification of wollastonite by the mechano-activated method and its properties

Surface modification of wollastonite particles using titanate as a modification agent incorporated by simultaneous wet ultra-fine grinding in a laboratory stirred mill was investigated.The physical,physic-chemical and application properties of the modified wollastonite were measured and evaluated.The results showed that grinding intensity markedly influences the modification effect because of the mechano chemical effect.The hydrophilic surface of wollastonite was turned into a hydrophobic one after modification.The interaction between titanate and wollastonite under wet grinding circumstances was studied.It was suggested that physical adsorption and chemical adsorption of titanate coexisted on the wollastonite surface.The mechanical properties of polyethylene（PE） filled with the modified wollastonite powder were markedly improved.

Aragonite from Mulanshan Glaucophane Schist: Implications for Regional Evolution of Southwestern Dabie Mountains, Central China

The aragonite, an index mineral of glaucophane schist facies, has not been confirmed in the Dabie Mountains high pressure and ultrahigh pressure metamorphic belts. The Mulanshan glaucophane schist in Huangpi County, Hubei Province is located in the southwestern Dabie Mountains, Central China. The micron sized intergranular aragonite is confirmed with optical microscope (OM) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) in the glaucophane schist. The submicrometer sized ellipse aragonite inclusion is observed by using bright field image (BFI), X ray energy damage spectrograph (EDS) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) with transmission electron microscope in the quartz lens of glaucophane albite epidote chlorite schist from Mulanshan. The presence of aragonite indicates not only the average geothermal gradient of the Mulanshan glaucophane schist less than 10 ℃/km, which is very close to that of eclogite in the Dabie Mountains metamorphic belts, but also the relatively higher concentration of CO2 during the metamorphic process. In addition, the glaucophane schist free of such index minerals as lawsonite, prehnite and pumpellyite, has been attributed to the effect of CO2 on the stability of calcium aluminum silicate minerals during the low grade metamorphism. EDS and SAED analysis results show that the host of aragonite inclusion is amorphous SiO2. The occurrence of amorphous SiO2 indicates a quick cooling process during the exhumation of the Mulanshan glaucophane schist. These results suggest that the rapid exhumation mechanism of the glaucophane schist, the same as that of eclogite in the Dabie Mountains metamorphic belts, occurred in the geodynamic context of subduction obduction.

High resolution X-ray spherically bent crystal spectrometer for laser-produced plasma diagnostics

A new high spectral resolution crystal spectrometer is designed to measure very low emissive X-ray spectra of laser-produced plasma in 0.5-0.9 nm range. A large open aperture （30 ×20 （mm）） mica （002） spherically bent crystal with curvature radius R = 380 mm is used as dispersive and focusing element. The imaging plate is employed to obtain high spectral resolution with effective area of 30 × 80 （mm）. The long designed path of the X-ray spectrometer beam is 980 mm from the source to the detector via the crystal. Experiment is carried out at a 20-J laser facility. X-ray spectra in an absolute intensity scale is obtained from Al laserproduced plasmas created by laser energy of 6.78 J. Samples of spectra obtained with spectral resolution of up to E/△E - 1500 are presented. The results clearly show that the device is good to diagnose laser high-density plasmas.

Detection of the X-ray spectra of imploding neon Z-pinch with elliptically bent mica crystal spectrometer

A wide variety of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet diagnostics are being developed to study on Yang accelerator. An elliptically bent crystal spectrometer is designed with a focal length of 1350 mm. A mica crystal with an interplanar spacing of 1.984 nm bent onto an elliptical substrate with eccentricity of 0.9485 is used. The crystal analyzer covers the Bragg angle range from 30° to 60°. The mica crystal can efficiently reflect radiation in multiple orders, covering the entire spectral range from 0.1 to 1.73 nm except for a gap from 0.86 to 1.0 nm. The application experiment is performed on Yang accelerator using the bent mica crystal analyzer. Spectra of neon-puff Z-pinch plasmas are recorded with a X-ray film, showing the H-like and the He-like lines of neon. Each spectrum has been identified and used for the wavelength calibration, and most of the line radiation is contained in the He-α and the L-α lines. The experimental results have demonstrated that the spectral resolution approximates 379.