Unique Silica Tubules Prepared from Iron Oxide that is a Product of the Bacterium Leptothrix ochracea

July 16, 2013

Researchers in the Okayama University Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology have obtained acidic silica tubules from a natural amorphous iron oxide with structural silicon that is a product of the iron-oxidizing bacterium Leptothrix ochracea. The silica tubules showed high catalytic performance and high absorption capacity of various gases.

The findings were published in the journal http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/am401029r

J. Takada, H. Hashimoto and their colleagues have succeeded in preparing the acidic silica tubules as follows: A natural amorphous iron oxide with structural silicon was the starting material. The starting material was heat-treated in a H2 gas flow leading to the segregation of Fe crystalline particles and then dissolved in 1 M hydrochloric acid to remove the Fe particles. The amorphous silica maintains the nano-microstructure of the starting material - ~1 micrometer diameter tubules consisting of inner globular and outer fibrillar structures several tens of nanometers in size with many large pores.

The findings could lead to the development of deriving from bacteria novel silica materials that have various sizes, structures and functions

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