VKTA

The extensive use of lanthanides in science, industry and high-technology products is accompanied by an anthropogenic input of rare earth elements into the environment. Knowledge of a metal's environmental fate is essential for reasonable risk assessment and remediation approaches. In the present study, Eu(III) was representatively used as a luminescent probe to study the chemical environment and to elucidate the molecular interactions of lanthanides with a suspension cell culture of Nicotiana tabacum BY-2. Biochemical methods were combined with luminescence spectroscopy, two-dimensional microspectroscopic mappings, and data deconvolution methods to resolve the bioassociation behavior and spatial distribution of Eu(III) in plant cells. BY-2 cells were found to gradually take up the metal after exposure to 100 μM Eu(III) without significant loss of viability. Time-resolved luminescence measurements were used to specify the occurrence of Eu(III) species as a function of time, revealing the transformation of an initial Eu(III) species into another after 24 h exposure. Chemical microscopy and subsequent iterative factor analysis reveal the presence of four distinct Eu(III) species located at different cellular compartments, e.g., the cell nucleus, nucleolus and cell walls, which could be assigned to intracellular binding motifs. In addition, a special type of bioaccumulation occurs through the formation of a Eu(III)-containing oxalate biomineral, which is already formed within the first 24 hours after metal exposure. Oxalate crystals were also obtained in analogous experiments with Gd and Sm. These results indicate that tobacco BY-2 cells induce the precipitation of metal oxalate biominerals for detoxification of lanthanides, although they also bind to other cellular ligands at the same time.

A 9Be-solution has been chemically prepared from phenakite (Be2SiO4) mineral grains as commercial 9Be-solutions are too high in long-lived 10Be. The solution is intended to be used as a carrier for radiochemical separation of 10Be to be measured by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Thus, accurate data of the 9Be-concentration of this solution is essential to guarantee for high-accuracy 10Be data in the future. After devastating preliminary results (~8 % standard deviation), eight laboratories finally produced twelve individual results by four different analytical methods. A certain lab and method bias might be identified by sophisticated statistical evaluation. Some laboratories also (grossly) underestimate their uncertainties. Thus, the simple weighted mean of this round-robin exercise needed to be corrected by introducing additional allowances (Paule-Mandel-approach). The final result has been calculated to (2,246 ± 11) μg 9Be/(g solution) with a reasonably low weighted standard deviation of 0.49 %. The maximum deviation of a single lab value from the weighted mean is 2.4 % when removing one Grubbs outlier (11 % off from the mean) from the data set. As 10Be-data, which is usually calculated from measured 10Be/9Be by AMS and stable 9Be, cannot be more accurate than the determined 9Be-concentration, it seems highly advisable to establish or improve quality assurance by having self-made carrier-solutions analysed at more than a single lab and regularly taking part in round-robin exercises.