ABSTRACT
Fluorescence-mode XAFS has been used to study the local environment about chosen atomic species such as Ga and As in bulk oxide Al(1-x)Ga(x)As (x=0.96) and at the interface between thin (300 A) oxidized Al(1-x)Ga(x)As (x=0.94) film and GaAs substrate in total external-reflection mode. X-ray reflectivity experiments have also been employed to investigate the density profile of the oxide film on a GaAs substrate revealing the density profile as a function of depth. It is important to find out how the As is incorporated at the interface, the interfacial strain, and related local structural parameters for understanding that may be central in developing high performance III-V MOSFET devices.
ABSTRACT
Bacteria, which are ubiquitous in near-surface geologic systems, can affect the distribution and fate of metals in these systems through adsorption reactions between the metals and bacterial cell walls. Recently, Fein et al. (1997) developed a chemical equilibrium approach to quantify metal adsorption onto cell walls, treating the sorption as a surface complexation phenomenon. However, such models are based on circumstantial bulk adsorption evidence only, and the nature and mechanism of metal binding to cell walls for each metal system have not been determined spectroscopically. The results of XAFS measurements at the Cd K-edge and U L3-edge on Bacillus subtilis exposed to these elements show that, at low pH, U binds to phosphoryl groups while Cd binds to carboxyl functional groups.
Subject(s)
Bacillus subtilis/metabolism , Cadmium/metabolism , Uranium/metabolism , Adsorption , Bacillus subtilis/chemistry , Biomass , Cadmium/analysis , Cadmium/pharmacokinetics , Cell Wall/chemistry , Cell Wall/metabolism , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Hydroxides/metabolism , Models, Biological , Organophosphorus Compounds/metabolism , Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission/methods , Uranium/analysis , Uranium/pharmacokineticsABSTRACT
X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy is used to study the local environment of the iron site in natural (human) neuromelanin extracted from substantia nigra tissue and in various synthetic neuromelanins. All the materials show Fe centered in a nearest neighbor sixfold (distorted) oxygen octahedron; the Fe-O distances, while slightly different in the natural and synthetic neuromelanin, are both approximately 2.0 A. Appreciable differences arise, however, in the second (and higher) coordination shells. In this case the synthetic melanin has the four planar oxygens bound to carbon rings with Fe-C distances of approximately 2.82 and 4.13 A; the human sample does not show the 2.82 A link but instead indicates a double shell at approximately 3.45 and 3.78 A.
