We designed a new culture method for neutrophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria using liquid medium (i) to study the formation and mineralogical characteristics of biogenic iron oxides (BIOS) and (ii) to apply BIOS to various scientific and engineering applications. An iron-oxidizing bacterium, Mariprofundus ferrooxydans PV-1(T) (ATCC, BAA-1020), was cultured using a set of diffusion chambers to prepare a broad anoxic-oxic interface, upon which BIOS formation is typically observed in natural environments. Iron oxide precipitates were generated in parallel with bacterial growth. A scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated that the morphological features of the iron oxide precipitates in the medium (in vitro BIOS) were similar to those of BIOS collected from natural deep-sea hydrothermal environments in the Northwest Eifuku Seamount field in the northern Mariana Arc (in situ BIOS). Further chemical speciation of both the in vitro and in situ BIOS was examined with X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS). A bulk XAFS analysis showed that the minerals in both BIOS were mainly ferrihydrite and oligomeric stages of amorphous iron oxyhydroxides with edge-sharing octahedral linkages. The amount of in vitro BIOS produced with the diffusion-chamber method was greater than those produced previously with other culture methods, such as gel-stabilized gradient and batch liquid culture methods. The larger yields of BIOS produced with the new culture method will allow us to clarify in the future the mineralization mechanisms during bacterial growth and to examine the physicochemical properties of BIOS, such as their adsorption to and coprecipitation with various elements and substances.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.