Abstract
Carbonate mineralization microbe is a microorganism capable of decomposing the substrate in the metabolic process to produce the carbonate, which then forms calcium carbonate with calcium ions. By taking advantage of this process, contaminative uranium tailings can transform to solid cement, where calcium carbonate plays the role of a binder. In this paper, we have studied the morphology of mineralized crystals by controlling the mineralization time and adding different concentrations of montmorillonite (MMT). At the same time, we also studied the effect of carbonate mineralized cementation uranium tailings by controlling the amount of MMT. The results showed that MMT can regulate the crystal morphology of calcium carbonate. What is more, MMT can balance the acidity and ions in the uranium tailings; it also can reduce the toxicity of uranium ions on microorganisms. In addition, MMT filling in the gap between the uranium tailings made the cement body more stable. When the amount of MMT is 6%, the maximum strength of the cement body reached 2.18 MPa, which increased by 47.66% compared with that the sample without MMT. Therefore, it is reasonable and feasible to use the MMT to regulate the biocalcium carbonate cemented uranium tailings.
Highlights
Biomineralization refers to the process by which organisms produce inorganic minerals through the regulation of biological macromolecules [1]
In order to efficiently cement the uranium tailings, we studied the effect of temperature and pH on microbial mineralization at different temperatures and pH conditions by varying the number of bacteria and the amount of calcium carbonate produced in the mineralized solution
MMT can balance the acidity and ions in the uranium tailings (Supporting Information, Figure S2), and it can reduce the toxicity of uranium ions on microorganisms (Supporting Information, Figure S3) [31]
Summary
Biomineralization refers to the process by which organisms produce inorganic minerals through the regulation of biological macromolecules [1]. Microorganisms play an important role in the process of biomineralization, which is the largest and most widely distributed form of life on earth. Microbial-induced mineralization mainly can be defined as the mineralization process caused by the interaction of microbial life activities with the surrounding environment [2]. Soil mineral-microbial interactions are the most basic biogeochemical effects [3, 4]. Microbial metabolic activities play an important role in the elemental cycling, formation, and transformation, as well as the weathering of the earth’s environment [5]. The interaction between soil minerals and microbes has become a hot topic in related disciplines. In 2016, Shi et al published a review in the Journal of Nature Review on microbes [6], which systematically summarized the mechanism of interaction between minerals and microbes, focusing on two basic sciences of energy and extracellular electron transfer. Domestic and foreign scholars have studied the different systems and related mechanism of soil mineral-microbial interaction, involving the microbial adsorption process on the surface of minerals [7, 8]; they studied the relationship between mineral-microbial-soil contaminants
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