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Tenorite mineral

Tenorite is the monoclinic copper(II) oxide mineral CuO, distinct from cuprite (Cu2O), elemental copper and unspecified copper-oxide nanoparticles. The September 2026 IMA list records approved status A with a 1962 special-procedure action, not a sequential approval number. The accepted experiment concerns a synthetic analogue assigned to monoclinic CuO after heating material conditioned with fungal biomass filtrate. It does not establish direct living-cell formation, phase purity or isolated copper recovery. No elemental copper criticality designation is inherited.

Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)

Thermal production of monoclinic CuO after fungal-filtrate conditioning

other

A copper sulfate preparation incubated with cell-free biomass filtrate of the source-labelled Aspergillus niger G3-1 was collected and oven-treated at 200°C for 24 h before characterization. The resulting product was assigned to monoclinic CuO by powder diffraction, providing evidence for a synthetic tenorite analogue in a chemically complex product. The microbial flag is false for the accepted thermal stage; fungal culture supplied the upstream filtrate. Neither a pre-heating phase analysis nor a matched filtrate-free thermal comparator establishes whether the fungal step is necessary for CuO formation. This is not evidence of fungal growth at 200°C.

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Section 2.1 identifies G3-1 from desert soil at El-Wahat, Giza, Egypt, using morphology and ITS sequencing. The cited KY465752.1 record has the same strain label and species taxon 5061; it does not independently authenticate every experimental culture. Section 2.2 cultured the fungus in 100 mL potato-dextrose broth for six days at 28 ± 2°C and 150 rpm. Biomass was centrifuged, washed three times with distilled water, and 15 g was incubated in 100 mL distilled water for 48 h. The biomass-free centrifugation supernatant was then incubated with nominal 2 mM CuSO4·5H2O for 24 h at 30 ± 2°C and 150 rpm, followed by collection and oven treatment at 200°C for 24 h. Assay pH, a Cu mass balance and recovered-product yield are not specified for this synthesis. The experimental precursor was a laboratory salt, not a copper ore or real waste stream. Subsequent insect and wheat exposure experiments do not demonstrate industrial CuO manufacture or environmental safety of this production process.
Curated Evidence Points:
Section 2.2 p. 3 explicitly includes the 200°C, 24-hour oven step. Figure 1B pp. 7–8 and Section 3.2.2 assign the crystalline product to monoclinic CuO using reference 01-080-0076. This structural assignment, together with the authority description of monoclinic CuO, grounds the synthetic analogue mapping to tenorite. The word biosynthesized in the source is not used to eliminate the thermal treatment or establish the phase before heating.
The XRD prose lists peaks at 32.9, 35.8, 39.2, 58.6, 61.9, 66.5, 68.4 and 72.8 degrees 2-theta, whereas Figure 1B visibly places the labelled minus-202 feature near 49 degrees and ends at 70 degrees; Section 2.3.2 states a 4–70-degree scan. Thus the prose peak list, displayed pattern and scan range are inconsistent. The figure supports the authors’ monoclinic-CuO assignment qualitatively, but the inconsistent values are not imported as verified diffraction measurements or a precise lattice determination. No quantitative phase fit or phase fraction is supplied.
Figure 2C p. 9 reports EDX weights of 62.96% Cu, 22.93% O and 14.11% S. Figure 4 and Section 3.2.5 pp. 10–11 assign both Cu(I) and Cu(II) components in the XPS fits; Figure 1A’s shorter-wavelength UV feature is also interpreted by the authors as Cu2O-related. These observations preclude treating the material as demonstrated pure CuO, and XPS surface assignments do not quantify bulk mineral fractions. The source proposes biomolecular capping to explain other elements and peaks without uniquely excluding residual sulfate or alternative chemical species.
The precursor CuSO4 and tenorite CuO both contain Cu(II), so their nominal conversion does not by itself demonstrate copper reduction. The paper’s proposed reduction, capping and stabilization by fungal metabolites are not isolated by specific enzyme assays, heat-only/filtrate-free controls or phase characterization before and after heating. Figure 3 FTIR functional-group assignments and color change do not establish a unique molecular pathway. TEM particle dimensions and Scherrer crystallite estimates are different quantities and do not measure recovery yield.

Sources & References

  1. ima_202609: IMA-CNMNC master list, September 2026, definitions pp. 1–2 and Tenorite row p. 214: CuO, A, 1962 s.p.
    https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-15)
  2. handbook_tenorite: Handbook of Mineralogy. Tenorite. Version 1, 2001–2005, one-page entry; CuO, monoclinic C2/c structure and synthetic powder pattern.
    https://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/tenorite.pdf (accessed 2026-10-15)
  3. badawy2021: Badawy, Abdelfattah, Salem, Awad and Fouda (2021). Efficacy Assessment of Biosynthesized Copper Oxide Nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) on Stored Grain Insects and Their Impacts on Morphological and Physiological Traits of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Plant. Biology 10:233. Complete 21-page article; Sections 2.1–2.3 and 3.1–3.2, Figures 1–4.
    https://doi.org/10.3390/biology10030233 (accessed 2026-10-15)
  4. genbank_ky465752: GenBank KY465752.1. Aspergillus niger strain G3-1 ribosomal/ITS sequence, 702 bp; source taxon 5061, soil, Egypt, collection 2015.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/KY465752.1 (accessed 2026-10-15)

Curation History

Timestamp Curator Action Summary
2026-10-15T01:21:08.275051+00:00 codex (GPT-6; codex) CREATE Created tenorite mineral record for thermal CuO formation from a fungal-conditioned copper-sulfate preparation, preserving explicit 200°C heating, mixed-product evidence and absent causal synthesis controls.

Record source: data/records/tenorite.yaml