Terbium element Critical Material

Terbium biosorption with lyophilized Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Paper et al. identified UTEX 2973 in their 12-strain screen. This strain was cultivated in BG11 medium in a 3.7 L photobioreactor at 37 degrees C with constant illumination at 300 micromol photons per square metre per second and pH 8 maintained by CO2 addition, then harvested by centrifugation in stationary phase. Before sorption, biomass was washed three times in demineralized water, frozen at -80 degrees C and lyophilized. The separate laboratory sorption assay used 10-20 mg dry biomass in 2 mL single-metal solution, initially 10 mM and pH 5 +/- 0.2, shaken for 3 h at room temperature. The exact terbium salt counter-ion, numerical sorption temperature and strain-specific mass within that range are not reported. Experiments were performed in triplicate, without a stated distinction between independent biomass preparations and technical replicates. After centrifugation at 10,000 rcf for 5 min, supernatant concentrations were analyzed by ICP-OES with multielement calibration standards. Biomass viability was not assessed. No matched biomass-free terbium solution-control result is reported in the main article or its two supplementary tables, so alternative solution-loss processes are not fully excluded.

Curated Evidence Points: