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Volume 61 Supplement 1

Special Issue: Magnetism of Volcanic Materials-Tribute to Works of Michel Prévot

Formation of magnetite in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense studied with FORC diagrams

Earth, Planets and Space volume 61, pages 143–150 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

In order to study the formation of magnetite in magnetotactic bacteria, FORC diagrams were measured on a set of cultured Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense, following an assay in which the iron uptake is used only for magnetite formation and not for cell growth. This enabled us to follow the magnetite formation independently of growth. The FORC diagrams showed a clear evolution from a size-distribution with a majority of superparamagnetic grains, to a distribution dominated by stable, single-domain grains, but still containing some superparamagnetic particles. TEM observations confirm this evolution. According to the saturation isothermal remanent magnetization cooling and warming curves, the Verwey transition can only be seen in the most mature samples, and slightly below 120 K. This suggests that the samples may have suffered from some partial oxidation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Minéralogie et de Physique des Milieux Condensés, Campus Boucicaut, 140 rue de Lourmel, 75015, Paris, France

    Claire Carvallo, Stanislawa Hickey & Nicolas Menguy

  2. Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsisusstr. 1, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Damien Faivre

  3. Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Science Park Golm, 14424, Potsdam, Germany

    Damien Faivre

Authors
  1. Claire Carvallo
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  2. Stanislawa Hickey
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  3. Damien Faivre
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  4. Nicolas Menguy
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Correspondence to Claire Carvallo.

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Carvallo, C., Hickey, S., Faivre, D. et al. Formation of magnetite in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense studied with FORC diagrams. Earth Planet Sp 61, 143–150 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352894

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352894

Key words

  • Magnetotactic bacteria
  • FORC diagrams
  • magnetite