Cerussite, an orthorhombic lead carbonate mineral, has a structure and physical properties that cannot be understood merely in terms of ionic anion-cation interactions. The nature of the chemical bonding in cerussite is analyzed by means of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and the analysis of the electron localization function (ELF). A long C-C attractive interaction (3.077 Å) a...

“Stickies” are tacky species, present in recycled paper and coated broke, derived from coating formulations, adhesives etc. They impact negatively on paper quality and cause web runnability problems by deposit build-up. To sustain recycling, stickies are controlled by adsorbing them onto minerals added to the recycled stock. We report isotherms for a fatty acid ester defoamer and an acrylic aci...

A demonstration of Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) was recently completed on a Hanford Low Activity Waste (LAW) simulant. This technology produced stable mineral phases (feldspathoids) when co-fired with clay. The mineral phases are cage structured and were determined to retain anions such as SO4 as well as cations such as Re (simulant for Tc) in the mineral cages. The mineral phases are p...

Ureolytically-driven calcium carbonate precipitation is the basis for a promising in-situ remediation method for sequestration of divalent radionuclide and trace metal ions. It has also been proposed for use in geotechnical engineering for soil strengthening applications. Monitoring the occurrence, spatial distribution, and temporal evolution of calcium carbonate precipitation in the subsurface...

Recent dietary life involves frequent opportunities for the ingestion of purified, processed food products and preserved foods, and it has been pointed out that the current dietary mineral intake strongly tends toward nutritional imbalance. The Ryukyu Islands yield coral which contains calcium and magnesium in a content ratio of about 2 to 1, with their approximate contents of 20 and 10%, respe...

The sedimentary record reveals first-order changes in the locus of carbonate precipitation through time, documented in the decreasing abundance of carbonate precipitation on the seafloor. This pattern is most clearly recorded by the occurrence of seafloor carbonate crystal fans (bladed aragonite pseudomorphs neomorphosed to calcite or dolomite), which have a distinct temporal distribution, ubiq...

Synechococcus strain GL24 is a unicellular cyanobacterium that was isolated from Fayetteville Green Lake, New York, a meromictic lake which has high Ca and SO(4) concentrations. Epicellular mineralization of Synechococcus cells in the lake is the mechanism by which extensive calcitic bioherms (or microbial reefs) have been formed on the lake's shore and a marl sediment has been built on the lak...

Experimental approaches attempt to determine the routes by which crustal carbonatite magmas can be derived from C02-bearing peridotite at high pressures. The intimate association of kimberlite and carbonatite on a small scale il· lustrates links in the processes. Carbonation of peridotite by C02 can cause the generation of near-solidus carbonatitic liquid from mantle peridotite at depths greate...

Using a semi-solid 0.5% agar column, we study the phenomenon of microbially induced mineral (calcium carbonate) by the bacteria Sporosarcina pasteurii. Our platform allows for in-situ visualization of the phenomena, and we found clear evidence of bacterial cell surface facilitating formation of nanoscale crystals. Moreover, in the bulk agar we found the presence of microspheres, which seem to a...

In several recent models of invertebrate skeletogenesis, Ca-carbonate crystallization occurs within a liquid-filled chamber. No explanation is given neither for the simultaneous occurrence of distinct polymorphs of Ca-carbonate within these liquid volumes, nor for the spatial arrangement of the mineral units which are always organized in species-specific structural sequences. Results of a serie...