Bacterial destruction of mica during bioleaching of kaolin and quartz sands by Bacillus cereus

Growth and metabolic activities of Bacillus cereus were found to cause the extraction of iron atoms from the octahedral position in mica in the kaolin sample (49%) and in the quartz sands sample (17%) after 3 months of bioleaching, while aluminium removal was only 5%. Mica destruction was detected i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:World journal of microbiology & biotechnology 2003-08, Vol.19 (6), p.583-590
Main Authors: STYRIAKOVA, I, STYRIAK, I, NANDAKUMAR, M. P, MATTIASSON, B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Biotechnology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
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Summary:Growth and metabolic activities of Bacillus cereus were found to cause the extraction of iron atoms from the octahedral position in mica in the kaolin sample (49%) and in the quartz sands sample (17%) after 3 months of bioleaching, while aluminium removal was only 5%. Mica destruction was detected in kaolin and quartz sands samples by X-ray diffraction analysis and also by i.r. adsorption spectroscopy in quartz sands samples. The structural changes obtained were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The SEM pictures show a different morphology in the boundary region of mica grains before and after bioleaching. Bacterial destruction effects were feeble in the interlayer sites and were specially directed to split planes, which are occupied by a number of bacterial cells. The biological destruction of mica with phengite composition after iron removal led to development of illite, which was detected by energy-dispersion microanalysis (EDS). Illite development caused also the enrichment of the kaolin sample by fine-grained fraction.
ISSN:0959-3993
1573-0972
DOI:10.1023/A:1025176210705