‘Green rust’ could scrape toxic metals
IANS
A rare kind
of mineral known as “green rust”, which could be used to scrape toxic metals
and radioactive species from the environment, also played a similar and crucial
role early in Earth’s history.
Research
suggests for the first time that ‘green rust’ was likely widespread in ancient
oceans and may have played a vital role in the creation of our early
atmosphere.
Led by
Newcastle University, the study shows that during the Precambrian period, green
rust ‘scavenged’ heavy metals such as nickel out of the water, the journal Geology
reports.
Highly reactive
Only
discovered last decade, green rust is a highly reactive iron mineral which
experts hope could be used to clean up metal pollution and even radioactive
waste, according to a Newcastle statement.
Newcastle
University’s Simon Poulton, professor, said this latest discovery proved the
effectiveness of green rust as an environmental cleaner.
“Because it
is so reactive, green rust has hardly ever been found before in nature and
never in a water system like this,” explains Poulton, who led the research team
involving experts from the Universities of Newcastle, Nancy, Southern Denmark,
Leeds, Brussels and Kansas, and the Canadian Light Source and Indonesian
Institute of Sciences.
“The
discovery of green rust in Lake Matano, Indonesia, where we carried out our
experiments shows for the first time what a key role it played in our ancient
oceans — scavenging dissolved nickel, a key micronutrient for methanogenesis.”
Keywords: green rust, toxic metals, radioactive materials
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