During subsurface bioremediation of uranium-contaminated sites, indigenous metal and sulfate-reducing bacteria may utilize a variety of electron acceptors, including ferric iron and sulfate that could lead to the formation of various biogenic minerals in situ. Sulfides, as well as structural and adsorbed Fe(II) associated with biogenic Fe(II)-sulfide phases, can potentially catalyze abiotic U(VI) reduction via direct electron transfer processes. In the present work, the propensity of biogenic mackinawite (Fe 1+x S, x = 0 to 0.11) to reduce U(VI) abiotically was investigated. The biogenic mackinawite produced by Shewanella putrefaciens strain CN32 was characterized by employing a suite of analytical techniques including TEM, SEM, XAS, and Mössbauer analyses. Nanoscale and bulk analyses (microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, respectively) of biogenic mackinawite after exposure to U(VI) indicate the formation of nanoparticulate UO2. This study suggests the relevance of sulfide-bearing biogenic minerals in mediating abiotic U(VI) reduction, an alternative pathway in addition to direct enzymatic U(VI) reduction.

Articles you may be interested inThe structural, morphological, defect properties, and OFF state leakage current mechanism of mixed As-Sb type-II staggered gap GaAs-like and InAs-like interface heterostructure tunnel field effect transistors (TFETs) grown on InP substrates using linearly graded In x Al 1-x As buffer by molecular beam epitaxy are investigated and compared. Symmetric relaxation of >90% and >75% in the two orthogonal h110i directions with minimal lattice tilt was observed for the terminal GaAs 0.35 Sb 0.65 and In 0.7 Ga 0.3 As active layers of GaAs-like and InAs-like interface TFET structures, respectively, indicating that nearly equal numbers of a and b dislocations were formed during the relaxation process. Atomic force microscopy reveals extremely ordered crosshatch morphology and low root mean square roughness of $3.17 nm for the InAs-like interface TFET structure compared to the GaAs-like interface TFET structure of $4.46 nm at the same degree of lattice mismatch with respect to the InP substrates. The GaAs-like interface exhibited higher dislocation density, as observed by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, resulting in the elongation of reciprocal lattice point of In 0.7 Ga 0.3 As channel and drain layers in the reciprocal space maps, while the InAs-like interface creates a defect-free interface for the pseudomorphic growth of the In 0.7 Ga 0.3 As channel and drain layers with minimal elongation along the Dx direction. The impact of the structural differences between the two interface types on metamorphic TFET devices was demonstrated by comparing p þ -i-n þ leakage current of identical TFET devices that were fabricated using GaAs-like and InAs-like interface TFET structures. Higher OFF state leakage current dominated by band-to-band tunneling process due to higher degree of defects and dislocations was observed in GaAs-like interface compared to InAs-like interface where type-II staggered band alignment was well maintained. Significantly lower OFF state leakage current dominated by the field enhanced Shockley-Read-Hall generation-recombination process at different temperatures was observed in InAs-like TFET structure. The fixed positive charge at the source/channel heterointerface influences the band lineup substantially with charge density greater than 1 Â 10 12 /cm 2 and the band alignment is converted from staggered gap to broken gap at $6 Â 10 12 /cm 2 . Clearly, InAs-like interface TFET structure exhibited 4Â lower OFF state leakage current, which is attributed primarily to the impact of the layer roughness, defect properties on the carrier recombination rate, suggesting great promise for metamorphic TFET devices for high-performance, and ultra-low power applications. V C 2012 American Institute of Physics.

The ferroelectric domain and local structures of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-xat.%BaTiO3 (NBT-x%BT) crystals for x = 0, 4.5, and 5.5 have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the size of polar nano-regions was refined with increasing xat. %BT. The tetragonal phase volume fraction, as identified by in-phase octahedral tilting, was found to be increased with BT. The findings indicate that the large electric field induced strains in morphotropic phase boundary compositions of NBT-x%BT originate not only from polarization rotation but also polarization extension.

; et al., "Effect of Mn substituents on the domain and local structures of Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3-BaTiO3 single crystals near a morphotropic phase boundary," Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 132903 (2011); http://dx

We report the first characterization of the internal structural features within rhombohedral nanocrystals of hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ), specifically nanoscale pores (nanopores) within these crystals observed by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography. Threedimensional observations of the internal structure of hematite nanocrystals suggest that the nanopores are formed due to a large reduction in solid volume during the transformation of a poorly crystalline precursor [aggregates of ferrihydrite: Fe 8.2 O 8.5 (OH) 7.4 ⋅3H 2 O], which results in the formation of pores between grain boundaries. This formation mechanism is different from those previously reported, such as hollow cores originating from screw dislocations. We also discuss dissolution experiments of the hematite nanocrystals in ascorbic acid solution, in which we demonstrated that the nanopores are reactive sites for dissolution and enlarged by preferential etching. Our findings are of fundamental importance to understanding how certain crystal morphologies, internal structures, defects, and reactive sites occur in nanocrystals formed from a poorly crystalline precursor.

Articles you may be interested inTunneling field-effect transistor with Ge/In0.53Ga0.47As heterostructure as tunneling junction J. Appl. Phys. 113, 094502 (2013) The compositional dependence of effective tunneling barrier height (E beff ) and defect assisted band alignment transition from staggered gap to broken gap in GaAsSb/InGaAs n-channel tunnel field effect transistor (TFET) structures were demonstrated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). High-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the active layers are internally lattice matched. The evolution of defect properties was evaluated using cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. The defect density at the source/channel heterointerface was controlled by changing the interface properties during growth. By increasing indium (In) and antimony (Sb) alloy compositions from 65% to 70% in In x Ga 1Àx As and 60% to 65% in GaAs 1Ày Sb y layers, the E beff was reduced from 0.30 eV to 0.21 eV, respectively, with the low defect density at the source/channel heterointerface. The transfer characteristics of the fabricated TFET device with an E beff of 0.21 eV show 2Â improvement in ON-state current compared to the device with E beff of 0.30 eV. On contrary, the value of E beff was decreased from 0.21 eV to À0.03 eV due to the presence of high defect density at the GaAs 0.35 Sb 0.65 /In 0.7 Ga 0.3 As heterointerface. As a result, the band alignment was converted from staggered gap to broken gap, which leads to 4 orders of magnitude increase in OFF-state leakage current. Therefore, a high quality source/channel interface with a properly selected E beff and well maintained low defect density is necessary to obtain both high ON-state current and low OFF-state leakage in a mixed As/Sb TFET structure for high-performance and lower-power logic applications. V C 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx

Manganese oxide nanomaterials hold promise for sustainable nanotechnologies given their utility for a variety of applications, the Earth's abundance of manganese, and their low toxicity relative to other nanomaterials. However green scalable synthesis methods for such nanomaterials are needed. We report here a green room-temperature synthesis of polycrystalline Mn 3 O 4 nanowires. In this procedure, aqueous Mn(II) is oxidized under circumneutral conditions by atmospheric oxygen in the presence of nanocrystalline iron oxide (α-Fe 2 O 3 ), an inexpensive catalyst, and a classic biochemical Good's buffer, PIPES (piperazine-N,N I -bis(2ethanesulfonic acid). The synthesis method is novel due to its simplicity, minimal energy input and waste output, and potential scalability. The Mn 3 O 4 nanowires have been characterized with a suite of electron microscopy techniques.

Abstract:In this article, we demonstrate the application of a new compressed sensing three-dimensional reconstruction algorithm for electron tomography that increases the accuracy of morphological characterization of nanostructured materials such as nanocrystalline iron oxide particles. A powerful feature of the algorithm is an anisotropic total variation norm for the L1 minimization during algebraic reconstruction that effectively reduces the elongation artifacts caused by limited angle sampling during electron tomography. The algorithm provides faithful morphologies that have not been feasible with existing techniques.