Interactions of rare earth elements with bacteria and organic ligands

Abstract

We investigated the interactions of rare earth elements (REEs) Eu(III) and/or Ce(III, IV) with the common soil bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens and organic ligands, such as malic acid, citric acid, a siderophore (DFO), cellulose, chitin, and chitosan. Malic acid formed complexes with Eu(III), but degradation of malic acid was observed when the ratio of malic acid to Eu(III) was higher than 100. Citric acid formed a stoichiometric complex with Eu(III) that was not degraded by P. fluorescens. Adsorption of Eu(III) from the DFO complex occurred as a free ion dissociated from DFO and not as the Eu(III)–DFO complex. Cerium(III) was oxidized to Ce(IV) during complexation with DFO to form the Ce(IV)–DFO complex. Time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) analysis showed that cellulose, chitin, and chitosan, respectively, formed a weak complex, an inner-spherical complex, and an outer-spherical complex with Eu(III). This method also demonstrated that the coordination environment of Eu(III) adsorbed on P. fluorescens possessed similar characteristics to that of chitin, and revealed that adsorption of Eu(III) on P. fluorescens was through a multidentate and predominantly inner-spherical coordination.