부산대학교 도서관

It is shown by laboratory experiments that peat, brown coal and its organomineral components, and microscopic fungi extracted from brown coals exhibit a high potential for extraction of all rare earth elements (REEs) from aqueous solutions. Physical sorption, ion-exchange reactions with the involvement of carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, and complexation with ‒ОН, ‒СО, and ‒СООН groups are included in the REE sorption processes by OM components. The REE-bearing mineral phases, which form due to interaction with N- and P-bearing functional protein groups of a cellular envelope are revealed by SEM-EDS study of the fungi biomass. The involvement of a biotic component in the formation of REE mineralization in brown coal sediments is indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]