AK&M 02 November 2024 14:55
Specialists of the A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the South Seas (InBUM) of the Russian Academy of Sciences assessed the content of rare earth elements (REE) in the shells of mollusks common in the coastal zone of the Black Sea. It turned out that the shells of marine life have the ability to accumulate REE.
Due to their unique physical and chemical properties, rare earth metals are extremely in demand in modern industry. They are indispensable in the production of smartphones, liquid crystal displays, wind turbines, electric vehicles, solar panels, powerful permanent magnets, LEDs, lasers and other high-tech products. At the same time, unlike heavy metals, the impact of which on the environment is well studied, information on the forms of REE in marine ecosystems is practically absent.
Crimean scientists have studied the shells of bivalve mollusks — anadara, Black Sea scallop, Mediterranean mussel, giant oyster, and gastropod mollusk rapana. These are typical and the most numerous species of Black Sea mollusks, with mussel, oyster and rapana being popular and commercially valuable seafood, and scallop and anadara have great potential for Black Sea aquaculture.
“We collected samples of shellfish in 2023-2024, mainly at the locations of the oyster farm in the coast of Sevastopol. The REE analysis was performed at the Center for Collective Use “Spectrometry and Chromatography”. As a result of this extensive work, we have revealed that the shells of the Black Sea mollusks are good accumulators of rare earth elements,” said the head of the study, Doctor of Biological Sciences Vitaly Ryabushko.
The shells of the studied specimens are abnormally enriched with scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, europium and terbium. The highest total REE concentrations were recorded in mussels and anadara — up to 1.9 mg per 1 kg of shell. This is almost twice the REE content in algae of the Crimean coast.
According to scientists, the shells of edible shellfish, which are traditionally considered waste, can serve as valuable biogeochemical indicators and potential sources of scarce metals.
“It is possible that over time, a technology will be developed that allows the extraction of REE from shellfish shells, as well as from seaweed emissions,” said the first author of the article, a leading researcher at the Department of Aquaculture and Marine Pharmacology FITZ InBUM, Candidate of Chemical Sciences Sergey Kapranov.
The work is supported by an RNF grant.
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