Scalable economic extracellular synthesis of CdS nanostructured particles by a non-pathogenic thermophile

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-013-1321-3· OSTI ID:1098173

Moon, Ji Won ^[1]; Ivanov, Ilia N ^[1]; Duty, Chad E ^[1]; Love, Lonnie J ^[1]; Wang, Wei ^[1]; Li, Dr. Yi-Liang ^[2]; Madden, Andrew ^[1]; Mosher, Jennifer J ^[1]; Hu, Michael Z. ^[1]; Suresh, Anil K ^[1]; Rawn, Claudia J ^[1]; Jung, Hyunsung ^[1]; Lauf, Robert J ^[1]; Phelps, Tommy Joe ^[1]

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1. ORNL
2. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

We report microbially facilitated synthesis of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanostructured particles (NP) using anaerobic, metal-reducing Thermoanaerobacter sp. The extracellular CdS crystallites were <10 nm in size with yields of ~3 g/L of growth medium/month with demonstrated reproducibility and scalability up to 24 L. During synthesis, Thermoanaerobacter cultures reduced thiosulfate and sulfite salts to H2S, which reacted with Cd2+ cations to produce thermodynamically favored NP in a single step at 65oC with catalytic nucleation on the cell surfaces. Photoluminescence (PL) analysis of dry CdS NP revealed an exciton-dominated PL peak at 440 nm, having a narrow full width at half maximum of 10 nm. A PL spectrum of CdS NP produced by dissimilatory sulfur reducing bacteria was dominated by features associated with radiative exciton relaxation at the surface. High reproducibility of CdS NP PL features important for scale-up conditions was confirmed from test tubes to 24L batches at a small fraction of the manufacturing cost associated with conventional inorganic NP production processes.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). High Temperature Materials Lab. (HTML)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1098173
• Journal Information: Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, Vol. 40, Issue 11; ISSN 1367--5435
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English