Microbial formation of manganese oxides.

Microbial manganese oxidation was demonstrated at high Mn concentrations (5 g/liter) in bacterial cultures in the presence of a microalga. The structure of the oxide produced varied depending on the bacterial strain and mode of culture. A nonaxenic, acid-tolerant microalga, a Chlamydomonas sp., was found to mediate formation of manganite (gamma-MnOOH). Bacteria isolated from associations with crude cultures of this alga grown in aerated bioreactors formed disordered gamma-MnO(2) from Mn at concentrations of 5 g/liter over 1 month, yielding 3.3 g of a semipure oxide per liter. All algal-bacterial cultures removed Mn from solution, but only those with the highest removal rates formed an insoluble oxide. While the alga was an essential component of the reaction, a Pseudomonas sp. was found to be primarily responsible for the formation of a manganese precipitate. Medium components-algal biomass and urea-showed optima at 5.7 and 10 g/liters, respectively. The scaled-up culture (50 times) gave a yield of 22.3 g (53 mg/liter/day from a 15-liter culture) of semipure disordered gamma-MnO(2), identified by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and had a manganese oxide O/Mn ratio of 1.92. The Mn(IV) content in the oxide was low (30.5%) compared with that of mined or chemically formed gamma-MnO(2) (ca. 50%). The shortfall in the bacterial oxide manganese content was due to biological and inorganic contaminants. FTIR spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and electron diffraction studies have identified manganite as a likely intermediate product in the formation of disordered gamma-MnO(2).