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Data sets for Unraveling Iron Oxides as Abiotic Catalysts of Organic Phosphorus Recycling in Soil and Sediment Matrices

  • Basinski, Jade Jin | Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Bone, Sharon E | SLAC
  • Klein, Annaleise R | Australian Synchrotron
  • Thongsomboon, Wiriya | Mahasarakham University
  • Mitchell, Valerie | Australian Synchrotron
  • Shukle, John T | Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
  • Druschel, Gregory K | Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
  • Thompson, Aaron | University of Georgia
  • Aristilde, Ludmilla | Northwestern University
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Overview

Description

In biogeochemical phosphorus cycling, iron oxide minerals are acknowledged as strong adsorbents of inorganic and organic phosphorus species. The dephosphorylation of organic phosphorus is attributed only to biological processes, but iron oxides could also catalyze this hydrolytic cleavage. Limited evidence of this abiotic catalysis has relied on monitoring inorganic phosphate in solution, thereby ignoring iron oxides as both catalysts and adsorbents. Here we apply high-resolution mass spectrometry and X-ray absorption spectroscopy to characterize dissolved and particulate phosphorus species, respectively. In soil and sediment samples reacted with ribonucleotides, we uncover the abiotic production of particulate inorganic phosphate associated specifically with iron oxides. Experiments with various organic phosphorus compounds revealed up to 12-fold greater catalytic and adsorption reactivities with iron oxides than with the silicate and aluminosilicate minerals identified in the environmental samples. Remarkably, we obtained dephosphorylation rates by the iron oxides that are within reported enzymatic rates in soils. However, phosphorus cycle models do not yet include a quantitative account of the abiotic evolution of inorganic phosphate from organic phosphorus trapped on iron oxides in environmental matrices. Our findings imply a missing abiotic axiom for organic phosphorus mineralization in the phosphorus cycle.

Funding resources

DOE contract number

DE-SC0021172

Originating research organization

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States);SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring organization

Office of Science (SC)

Details

DOI

10.13139/ORNLNCCS/2221769

Release date

March 21, 2024

Dataset

Dataset type

ND Numeric Data

Acknowledgements

Users should acknowledge the OLCF in all publications and presentations that speak to work performed on OLCF resources:

This work was carried out [in part] at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.

Category

  • 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Keywords

  • phosphorus,
  • organic phosphorus,
  • transformation,
  • dephosphorylation,
  • iron oxide,
  • XANES,
  • Fe XANES,
  • P XANES,
  • LCMS