NANOSCALE COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-METAL RICH BIO-MATERIALS
EMSL Project ID
50102
Abstract
The jaws, leg claws, stings and other “tools” of a large fraction of arthropods, some worms and mem-bers of other phyla, contain extraordinary amounts of heavy metals or bromine (e.g. Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Br), which we term heavy-element biomaterials (HEBs). Although the concentrations reach 25% of dry mass, these materials do not contain an ordered biomineral, like calcified tissues. In fact, X-ray absorption spectroscopy suggests that, in the Zn-version of these biomaterials, the spacing between even the closest Zn atoms is irregular. We propose to use APT, 67Zn NMR and possibly other tech-niques at EMSL to better understand the structure of several types of these materials. In particular, we will test the hypothesis that Zn is bound to three hydroxides and either a fourth hydroxide or a histidine imidazole nitrogen, in nanometer-scale inclusions. And we will investigate whether other metals used in HEBs are also bound in nanoclusters.
Project Details
Start Date
2017-10-20
End Date
2018-09-30
Status
Closed
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Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members