• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2019

The oxidation states of structural Fe in minerals reflect the paleo-depositional redox conditions for the biologically or abiotically induced mineral formation. Particularly, nano-scale analysis using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is necessary to identify evidence for the microbial role in the biomineralization. HRTEM-EELS analysis of oxidation states of structural Fe and carbon bonding structure differentiate biological factors in mineralization by mapping the distribution of Fe(II)/Fe(III) and source of organic C. HRTEM-EELS technique provides geomicrobiologists with the direct nano-scale evidence of microbe-mineral interaction.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.90-91
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• 2009

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 2012

The consequences of microbe-mineral interaction often resulted in the chemical, structural modification, or both in the biologically induced mineral. It is inevitable to utilize the high powered resolution of electron microscopy to investigate the mechanism of biogenic mineral transformation at nano-scale. The applications of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) capable of electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) to the study of microbe-mineral interaction were demonstrated for two examples: 1) biogenic illite formation associated with structural Fe(III) reduction in nontronite by Fereducing bacteria; 2) siderite phase formation induced by microbial Fe(III) reduction in magnetite. In particular, quantification of the changes in Fe-oxidation state at nanoscale is essential to understand the dynamic modification of minerals resulted from microbial Fe reduction. The procedure of EELS acquisition and advantages of EELS techniques were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 2020

The activity of living microorganism directly or indirectly affects to the biomineralization in sediments and rocks that display the unique biotic structure. Minerals in the biotic structures showed unique properties and bypass the thermodynamic and kinetic barriers. Therefore, investigations on the biotically induced microstructure is essential to identify the new mineral formation mechanism by analyzing crystal structures and morphology at a nano-scale. The significant implication as well as advantages of using scanning electron microscopy to characterize the biotic structures were discussed in this paper for the examples of hydrothermal vent area microbial mat and deep-sea ferromanganese crust sample.