Resource Generation Environment Research Group, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka, 273-0061, Japan.
Biofunctional Catalyst Research Team, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 May 15;56(21):5725-5728. doi: 10.1002/anie.201701768. Epub 2017 Apr 5.
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents discharge abundant reductive energy into oxidative seawater. Herein, we demonstrated that in situ measurements of redox potentials on the surfaces of active hydrothermal mineral deposits were more negative than the surrounding seawater potential, driving electrical current generation. We also demonstrated that negative potentials in the surface of minerals were widespread in the hydrothermal fields, regardless of the proximity to hydrothermal fluid discharges. Lab experiments verified that the negative potential of the mineral surface was induced by a distant electron transfer from the hydrothermal fluid through the metallic and catalytic properties of minerals. These results indicate that electric current is spontaneously and widely generated in natural mineral deposits in deep-sea hydrothermal fields. Our discovery provides important insights into the microbial communities that are supported by extracellular electron transfer and the prebiotic chemical and metabolic evolution of the ocean hydrothermal systems.
深海热液喷口向氧化海水中排放大量还原性能量。在此，我们证明了在活动热液矿床表面进行的氧化还原电位原位测量结果比周围海水的电位更负，从而驱动电流的产生。我们还证明了无论靠近热液流体排放的程度如何，在热液场中矿物表面的负电位都是普遍存在的。实验室实验验证了矿物表面的负电位是由热液流体通过矿物的金属和催化性质从远处进行电子转移而引起的。这些结果表明，电流在深海热液场中的天然矿物矿床中自发且广泛地产生。我们的发现为支持细胞外电子转移的微生物群落以及海洋热液系统的前生物化学和代谢演化提供了重要的见解。
