Modifying the thickness, pore size, and composition of diatom frustule in Pinnularia sp. with Al3+ ions

Mohammad Soleimani, Luco Rutten, Sai Prakash Maddala, Hanglong Wu, E. Deniz Eren, Brahim Mezari, Ingeborg Schreur-Piet, Heiner Friedrich (Corresponding author), Rolf A.T.M. van Benthem (Corresponding author)

Onderzoeksoutput: Bijdrage aan tijdschriftTijdschriftartikelAcademicpeer review

21 Citaten (Scopus)
70 Downloads (Pure)

Samenvatting

Diatoms are unicellular photosynthetic algae that produce a silica exoskeleton (frustule) which exposes a highly ordered nano to micro scale morphology. In recent years there has been a growing interest in modifying diatom frustules for technological applications. This is achieved by adding non-essential metals to the growth medium of diatoms which in turn modifies morphology, composition, and resulting properties of the frustule. Here, we investigate the frustule formation in diatom Pinnularia sp., including changes to overall morphology, silica thickness, and composition, in the presence of Al3+ ions at different concentrations. Our results show that in the presence of Al3+ the total silica uptake from the growth medium increases, although a decrease in the growth rate is observed. This leads to a higher inorganic content per diatom resulting in a decreased pore diameter and a thicker frustule as evidenced by electron microscopy. Furthermore, 27Al solid-state NMR, FIB-SEM, and EDS results confirm that Al3+ becomes incorporated into the frustule during the silicification process, thus, improving hydrolysis resistance. This approach may be extended to a broad range of elements and diatom species towards the scalable production of silica materials with tunable hierarchical morphology and chemical composition.

Originele taal-2Engels
Artikelnummer19498
Aantal pagina's12
TijdschriftScientific Reports
Volume10
Nummer van het tijdschrift1
DOI's
StatusGepubliceerd - 11 nov. 2020

Financiering

The authors would like to thank Prof. Eike Brunner at TU Dresden for providing instruction on the cultivation of diatoms. This research was carried out under Project Number C16030a in the framework of the Partnership Program of the Materials innovation institute M2i (www.m2i.nl) and the NWO Domain Science, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (www.nwo.nl).

FinanciersFinanciernummer
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Materials Innovation Institute

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