I18--the microfocus spectroscopy beamline at the Diamond Light Source

The design and performance of the microfocus spectroscopy beamline at the Diamond Light Source are described. The beamline is based on a 27 mm-period undulator to give an operable energy range between 2 and 20.7 keV, enabling it to cover the K-edges of the elements from P to Mo and the L(3)-edges from Sr to Pu. Micro-X-ray fluorescence, micro-EXAFS and micro-X-ray diffraction have all been achieved on the beamline with a spot size of approximately 3 microm. The principal optical elements of the beamline consist of a toroid mirror, a liquid-nitrogen-cooled double-crystal monochromator and a pair of bimorph Kirkpatrick-Baez mirrors. The performance of the optics is compared with theoretical values and a few of the early experimental results are summarized.

Microbial manufacture of chalcogenide-based nanoparticles via the reduction of selenite using Veillonella atypica: an in situ EXAFS study

The ability of metal-reducing bacteria to produce nanoparticles, and their precursors, can be harnessed for the biological manufacture of fluorescent, semiconducting nanomaterials. The anaerobic bacterium Veillonella atypica can reduce selenium oxyanions to form nanospheres of elemental selenium. These selenium nanospheres are then further reduced by the bacterium to form reactive selenide which could be precipitated with a suitable metal cation to produce nanoscale chalcogenide precipitates, such as zinc selenide, with optical and semiconducting properties. The whole cells used hydrogen as the electron donor for selenite reduction and an enhancement of the reduction rate was observed with the addition of a redox mediator (anthraquinone disulfonic acid). A novel synchrotron-based in situ time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy technique was used, in conjunction with ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, to study the mechanisms and kinetics of the microbial reduction of selenite to selenide. The products of this biotransformation were also assessed using electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and fluorescence spectroscopy. This process offers the potential to prepare chalcogenide-based nanocrystals, for application in optoelectronic devices and biological labelling, from more environmentally benign precursors than those used in conventional organometallic synthesis.

An X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of neptunium(V) reactions with Mackinawite (FeS)

Neptunium is a transuranium element, produced in tonne quantities in nuclear reactors. Because it has access to a range of oxidation states, neptunium may undergo redox transformations in the environment and these can have far-reaching effects on its environmental mobility. Here, the reaction of NpO2+ (the soluble and thermodynamically stable neptunium species in oxic systems) with microcrystalline mackinawite is studied. Uptake of neptunium from solution is relatively low (approximately 10% of the total initially present in solution) and independent of initial solution concentration over the range 0.27-2.74 mM and of equilibration time. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) of the solid sulfide samples indicates nearest neighbor oxygen atoms at distances around 2.25-2.26 A, sulfur atoms at around 2.61-2.64 A, and two more distant shells fitted with iron, at 3.91-3.95 A and 4.15-4.16 A. These observations suggest that on interaction with the sulfide surface reduction of Np(V) to Np(IV) occurs, accompanied by loss of axial oxygen atoms. Neptunium coordinates directly to surface sulfide atoms, in contrast to the behavior previously observed for uranium under similar conditions. These results demonstrate the importance and variability of the speciation of redox sensitive actinides under anoxic conditions.