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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech
Short Communication
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 17 October 2010
Received in revised form 7 December 2010
Accepted 8 December 2010
Available online 15 December 2010
Keywords:
Enterobacter sp.
Mercury bioremediation
Bioaccumulation
Mercury nanoparticle
a b s t r a c t
A mercury resistant strain of Enterobacter sp. is reported. The strain exhibited a novel property of mercury
bioaccumulation with simultaneous synthesis of mercury nanoparticles. The culture conditions viz. pH
8.0 and lower concentration of mercury promotes synthesis of uniform sized 25 nm, spherical and monodispersed intracellular mercury nanoparticles. The remediated mercury trapped in the form of nanoparticles is unable to vaporize back into the environment thus, overcoming the major drawback of mercury
remediation process. The mercury nanoparticles were recoverable. The nanoparticles have been characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, powder Xray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. The strain can be exploited for metal bioaccumulation from
environmental efuent and developing a green process for nanoparticles biosynthesis.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Nanoparticles are nding wide range of applications in biomedical sciences, drug delivery, gene therapy, cell targeting, magnetics,
optics, mechanics, catalysis and energy science (Berry and De La
Fuente, 2007; Daniel and Astruc, 2004). Synthesis of nanoparticles
of different chemical compositions, sizes/shapes with controlled
monodispersity is one of the major challenges for their sustainable
use. Currently employed physical and chemical methods for the
synthesis of nanoparticles, have certain associated problems such
as stability, uncontrolled crystal growth and aggregation of the
nanoparticles (Klaus-Joerger et al., 2001). In this context, use of
microorganisms for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles has emerged
as a novel approach (Mandal et al., 2006; Narayann and Sakthivel,
2010).
Mercury is one of the third most toxic element (Nies, 1999).
Chlor-alkali, electronic industries and power plants discharge large
amount of mercury into the atmosphere and surface water causing
a major environmental concern. Conventionally absorbents, ion exchange, reverse osmosis and electro-chemical treatment are used to
reduce mercury level in industrial waste water (Chiarle et al., 2000).
However, these techniques are expensive and non-specic. Major
problem is caused due to unique property of mercury to enter into
vapor stage at room temperature (from Hg2+ to Hg0) (Barkay et al.,
2003; Orton and Street, 1972). Thus, remediated mercury is often
recycled back into atmosphere in the form of mercury vapor.
Mercury remediating bacterial strains also have similar drawback
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 11 26596533; fax: +91 11 26581102.
E-mail address: skhare@rocketmail.com (S.K. Khare).
0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.12.040
2. Methods
2.1. Bacterial strain
Enterobacter sp. strain, an organic solvent-tolerant microorganism that was isolated from soil was used in the present study (Gupta et al., 2006). The culture was maintained at 4 C in agar slants
and sub-cultured at monthly intervals.
2.2. Inoculum and culture conditions
A loopful inoculum from the slant was introduced into the medium containing (g L 1): yeast extract 3.0; peptone, 5.0; NaCl, 2.5;
adjusted to pH 7.0 followed by incubation at 30 C and 120 rpm.
Twenty-four hour grown culture having OD 1.0 was used as seed
culture.
-1
A660
4282
24
48
72
Time (h)
96
120
144
4283
4. Conclusions
The study thus proves that the Enterobacter sp. is a novel strain
which can be useful for mercury remediation and nanoparticle
synthesis. The remediated mercury cannot vaporize back to environment and it is possible to recover it in nanoparticle form.
Acknowledgements
The research grant provided by Department of Biotechnology
(Govt. of India) for carrying out this study is gratefully acknowledged. Author Arvind Sinha is grateful to University Grant Commission, New Delhi for the award of Senior Research Fellowship.
Authors gratefully acknowledge the guidance and facilities for
nanoparticles provided by Prof. B.R. Mehta, Department of Physics,
IIT Delhi. The kind help given by Dr. Vidya Nand Singh in recording
and analyzing nanoparticles is also gratefully acknowledged.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.12.040.
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