Spontaneous and Widespread Electricity Generation in Natural Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Fields

Yamamoto, Masahiro; Nakamura, Ryuhei; Kasaya, Takafumi; Kumagai, Hitoshi; Suzuki, Katsuhiko; Takai, Ken

doi:10.1002/anie.201701768

Cited by 60 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Yamamoto et al. examined the redox potentials of mineral deposit surfaces at various vent sites . At an active vent hosting high‐temperature hydrothermal fluid, the redox potential of vent deposit surface was more negative than those in ambient seawater.…”

Section: Electricity Generation In Deep‐sea Hydrothermal Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Fields as Natural Power Plants

2018

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Deep‐sea hydrothermal vents are hot springs on the seafloor. In recent years, electricity generation in deep‐sea hydrothermal vents has been reported. Electricity can be generated through the sulfide minerals that form in seafloor hydrothermal deposits, and these minerals can convert the redox and heat energy between hydrothermal fluids and seawater into electric power. The physical and chemical phenomena of generating electricity from natural minerals provide key insights into development of deep‐sea power plants and novel electricity‐conversion materials with earth abundant elements. In addition, the new findings have established a novel concept of life, e. g., existence of electricity‐sustained life in hydrothermal vents and widespread occurrence of electron‐uptake ecosystems on the seafloor, together with a new hypothesis about the origin of life.

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Section: Electricity Generation In Deep‐sea Hydrothermal Fieldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Fields as Natural Power Plants

2018

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“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] These environments lack sunlight, which constitutes the primary energy source of terrestrial ecosystems. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] These environments lack sunlight, which constitutes the primary energy source of terrestrial ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] These environments lack sunlight, which constitutes the primary energy source of terrestrial ecosystems. [5,10,12,14,15,17] The 3-dimensional columnar struc-ture of the chimney wall establishes spatial thermodynamic gradients, [5,12] and the catalytic nature of its exterior [10] is thought to allow CO 2 to be reduced electrochemically to CO, HCOOH, and CH 4 . [5,10,12,14,15,17] The 3-dimensional columnar struc-ture of the chimney wall establishes spatial thermodynamic gradients, [5,12] and the catalytic nature of its exterior [10] is thought to allow CO 2 to be reduced electrochemically to CO, HCOOH, and CH 4 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemistry at Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Vents: Utilization of the Thermodynamic Driving Force towards the Autotrophic Origin of Life

2019

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Temperature gradients are an under-utilized source of energy with which to drive chemical reactions. Here, we review our past efforts to understand how deep-sea hydrothermal vents may harness thermal energy to promote difficult chemical reactions such as CO 2 reduction. Strategies to amplify the driving force using temperature will be covered first, followed by a discussion on how spatially separated thermodynamic gradients can be used to regulate reaction selectivity. Although desirable material properties of hydrothermal vent walls have been inferred previously from the bioenergetic membranes of modern cells, strategies based on fundamental laws of physical chemistry allow naturally occurring chimney minerals to circumvent the lack of structural and catalytic optimization. The principles that underlie both the establishment and the utilization of the thermodynamic driving force at hydrothermal vents can be employed in abiotic systems such as the modern chemical industry, yielding insight into carbon fixation reactions important today and possibly at the autotrophic origin of life.

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“…Only recently, however, we began to realize that this energy is also widely used by Nature in both biological and abiotic processes (Nakamura et al, 2010b; Revil et al, 2010) and that electrochemical redox reactions are important contributors to biogeochemical cycles (Nielsen and Risgaard-Petersen, 2015). The passage of electric currents through conductive minerals has been long-appreciated (Wells, 1914), and has gained a renewed interest due to its relevance to the biochemistry of hydrothermal vent systems and the origin of life (Karato and Wang, 2013; Malvankar et al, 2014; Yamamoto et al, 2017). Most of the redox processes across electrochemical gradients were previously associated with bacterial activity (Müller et al, 2016; Malkin et al, 2017) or human-made devices (Du et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron Transfer between Electrically Conductive Minerals and Quinones

Taran

2017

Front. Chem.

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Long-distance electron transfer in marine environments couples physically separated redox half-reactions, impacting biogeochemical cycles of iron, sulfur and carbon. Bacterial bio-electrochemical systems that facilitate electron transfer via conductive filaments or across man-made electrodes are well-known, but the impact of abiotic currents across naturally occurring conductive and semiconductive minerals is poorly understood. In this paper I use cyclic voltammetry to explore electron transfer between electrodes made of common iron minerals (magnetite, hematite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, mackinawite, and greigite), and hydroquinones—a class of organic molecules found in carbon-rich sediments. Of all tested minerals, only pyrite and magnetite showed an increase in electric current in the presence of organic molecules, with pyrite showing excellent electrocatalytic performance. Pyrite electrodes performed better than commercially available glassy carbon electrodes and showed higher peak currents, lower overpotential values and a smaller separation between oxidation and reduction peaks for each tested quinone. Hydroquinone oxidation on pyrite surfaces was reversible, diffusion controlled, and stable over a large number of potential cycles. Given the ubiquity of both pyrite and quinones, abiotic electron transfer between minerals and organic molecules is likely widespread in Nature and may contribute to several different phenomena, including anaerobic respiration of a wide variety of microorganisms in temporally anoxic zones or in the proximity of hydrothermal vent chimneys, as well as quinone cycling and the propagation of anoxic zones in organic rich waters. Finally, interactions between pyrite and quinones make use of electrochemical gradients that have been suggested as an important source of energy for the origins of life on Earth. Ubiquinones and iron sulfide clusters are common redox cofactors found in electron transport chains across all domains of life and interactions between quinones and pyrite might have been an early analog of these ubiquitous systems.

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Spontaneous and Widespread Electricity Generation in Natural Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Fields

Cited by 60 publications

References 29 publications

Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Fields as Natural Power Plants

Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Fields as Natural Power Plants

Electrochemistry at Deep‐Sea Hydrothermal Vents: Utilization of the Thermodynamic Driving Force towards the Autotrophic Origin of Life

Electron Transfer between Electrically Conductive Minerals and Quinones

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