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An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies
BACKGROUND: Pyrite is one of the most abundant and widespread of the sulfide minerals with a central role in biogeochemical cycles of iron and sulfur. Due to its diverse roles in the natural and anthropogenic sulfur cycle, pyrite has been extensively studied in various experimental investigations of...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4158268/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25221435 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12932-014-0010-0 |
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author | Mirzoyan, Natella Kamyshny, Alexey Halevy, Itay |
author_facet | Mirzoyan, Natella Kamyshny, Alexey Halevy, Itay |
author_sort | Mirzoyan, Natella |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Pyrite is one of the most abundant and widespread of the sulfide minerals with a central role in biogeochemical cycles of iron and sulfur. Due to its diverse roles in the natural and anthropogenic sulfur cycle, pyrite has been extensively studied in various experimental investigations of the kinetics of its dissolution and oxidation, the isotopic fractionations associated with these reactions, the microbiological processes involved, and the effects of pyrite on human health. Elemental sulfur (S(0)) is a common product of incomplete pyrite oxidation. Preexisting S(0) impurities as unaccounted reaction products are a source of experimental uncertainty, as are adhered fine grains of pyrite and its oxidation products. Removal of these impurities is, therefore, desirable. A robust standardized pretreatment protocol for removal of fine particles and oxidation impurities from pyrite is lacking. Here we describe a protocol for S(0) and fine particle removal from the surface of pyrite by rinsing in acid followed by repeated ultrasonication with warm acetone. RESULTS: Our data demonstrate the presence of large fractions of S(0) on untreated pyrite particle surfaces, of which only up to 60% was removed by a commonly used pretreatment method described by Moses et al. (GCA 51:1561-1571, 1987). In comparison, after pretreatment by the protocol proposed here, approximately 98% S(0) removal efficiency was achieved. Additionally, the new procedure was more efficient at removal of fine particles of adhered pyrite and its oxidation products and did not appear to affect the particle size distribution, the specific surface area, or the properties of grain surfaces. CONCLUSIONS: The suggested pyrite pretreatment protocol is more efficient in removal of impurities from pyrite grains, and provides multiple advantages for both kinetic and isotopic investigations of pyrite transformations under various environmental conditions. [Image: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12932-014-0010-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4158268 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41582682014-09-10 An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies Mirzoyan, Natella Kamyshny, Alexey Halevy, Itay Geochem Trans Methodology BACKGROUND: Pyrite is one of the most abundant and widespread of the sulfide minerals with a central role in biogeochemical cycles of iron and sulfur. Due to its diverse roles in the natural and anthropogenic sulfur cycle, pyrite has been extensively studied in various experimental investigations of the kinetics of its dissolution and oxidation, the isotopic fractionations associated with these reactions, the microbiological processes involved, and the effects of pyrite on human health. Elemental sulfur (S(0)) is a common product of incomplete pyrite oxidation. Preexisting S(0) impurities as unaccounted reaction products are a source of experimental uncertainty, as are adhered fine grains of pyrite and its oxidation products. Removal of these impurities is, therefore, desirable. A robust standardized pretreatment protocol for removal of fine particles and oxidation impurities from pyrite is lacking. Here we describe a protocol for S(0) and fine particle removal from the surface of pyrite by rinsing in acid followed by repeated ultrasonication with warm acetone. RESULTS: Our data demonstrate the presence of large fractions of S(0) on untreated pyrite particle surfaces, of which only up to 60% was removed by a commonly used pretreatment method described by Moses et al. (GCA 51:1561-1571, 1987). In comparison, after pretreatment by the protocol proposed here, approximately 98% S(0) removal efficiency was achieved. Additionally, the new procedure was more efficient at removal of fine particles of adhered pyrite and its oxidation products and did not appear to affect the particle size distribution, the specific surface area, or the properties of grain surfaces. CONCLUSIONS: The suggested pyrite pretreatment protocol is more efficient in removal of impurities from pyrite grains, and provides multiple advantages for both kinetic and isotopic investigations of pyrite transformations under various environmental conditions. [Image: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12932-014-0010-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer International Publishing 2014-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4158268/ /pubmed/25221435 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12932-014-0010-0 Text en © Mirzoyan et al.; licensee Chemistry Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
spellingShingle | Methodology Mirzoyan, Natella Kamyshny, Alexey Halevy, Itay An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies |
title | An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies |
title_full | An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies |
title_fullStr | An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies |
title_full_unstemmed | An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies |
title_short | An improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies |
title_sort | improved pyrite pretreatment protocol for kinetic and isotopic studies |
topic | Methodology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4158268/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25221435 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12932-014-0010-0 |
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