Alain Manceau, Anne-Claire Gaillot, Jianlin Liao, Yan Li, Olivier Mathon, Kirill A Lomachenko, Pieter Glatzel, Alexandre Simionovici, Mélanie Balvay, Sophie A L Paul, Andrea Koschinsky, Stephan N Steinmann
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Deep-sea mud is rich in rare-earth elements, primarily found in fluorapatite, a mineral deposit that forms over hundreds of thousands to millions of years through the accumulation of fish remains. After fish die, biogenic apatite captures rare earth elements from seawater on the seafloor and from pore waters during the diagenesis process. The conventional model for rare earth element enrichment suggests that they are incorporated into the bioapatite crystal structure through solid-state diffusion. However, our data reveal that cerium atoms are instead precipitated within an amorphous layer surrounding bioapatite nanocrystals, as shown by high-energy-resolution X-ray absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Computational simulations further support this finding, predicting that cerium atoms cluster on the surface of fluorapatite. These results suggest that the fluorapatite-water interface plays a crucial role in the enrichment of cerium, as well as other rare earth elements, in marine sediments.
期刊介绍:
Communications Earth & Environment is an open access journal from Nature Portfolio publishing high-quality research, reviews and commentary in all areas of the Earth, environmental and planetary sciences. Research papers published by the journal represent significant advances that bring new insight to a specialized area in Earth science, planetary science or environmental science.
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