Feuillie, Cécile

Hazen, Robert M.

Pédrot, Mathieu

Sverjensky, Dimitri A.

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Interactions of ribonucleotides with aluminium and iron oxides under varying environmental conditions

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Interactions of ribonucleotides with aluminium and iron
oxides under varying environmental conditions
Cécile Feuillie, Mathieu Pédrot, Dimitri A. Sverjensky, Robert M. Hazen
To cite this version:
Cécile Feuillie, Mathieu Pédrot, Dimitri A. Sverjensky, Robert M. Hazen. Interactions of ribonu-
cleotides with aluminium and iron oxides under varying environmental conditions. Deep carbon
observatory meeting, Mar 2015, Munich, Germany. 2015. ￿insu-02395395￿
INTERACTIONS OF RIBONUCLEOTIDES WITH ALUMINUM AND 
IRON OXIDES UNDER VARYING ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS!
Cécile Feuillie1, Mathieu Pédrot2, Dimitri A. Sverjensky3, Robert M. Hazen1!
Introduction!
Mineral surfaces might have concentrated building blocks of biomolecules 
in the context of the origin of life, facilitating their polymerization. Mineral 
surfaces have also been shown to protect biomolecules from degradation, 
facilitating their survival in soils. Previous work has highlighted the 
predominant role of the edges of mineral particles in the adsorption of 
nucleotides (Feuillie et al, 2013), implying oxide-like adsorption sites. The 
adsorption mechanism is not fully understood yet. !
Here we present experimental and surface complexation modeling results 
on the adsorption of nucleotides with alumina and hematite, 2 oxide 
minerals presenting the same structure, as a function of pH, ionic strength 
and ligand-to-solid ratio. !
 !
References : Feuillie et al, 2013, GCA 120 97–108; Halter & Pfeifer, 2001, 
C. Appl. Geochem.,16 (7-8), 793−802; Fukushi & Sverjensky, 2007, GCA 71 
(15), 3717−3745; Cornell & Schwertmann, 2003, The iron oxides: structures, 
properties, reactions, occurence and uses, p 85-86; Sverjensky, 2005, GCA 
69 (2) 225–257; Feuillie et al, 2015, Langmuir 31 (1) 240–248; He et al, 
1997, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 61 (3), 784−793. !
!
!
!
!
!
Ribonucleotide!
Adenine! Cytosine! Guanine! Uracil!
Methods!
!
•  Experimental approach : batch adsorption experiments!
•  Adsorption at room temperature until equilibrium!
•  Wide range of pH (3 – 11), ionic strength !
!(from 0 to 0.1 M of NaCl), and surface loading!
•  Centrifugation and filtration of the supensions!
•  Ion Chromatography analysis of the supernatant!
     (ICS-5000 – Dionex; AminoPac PA10 column)!
!
•  Theoretical approach : surface complexation calculations using the 
Extended Triple Layer Model (ETLM)!
•  1 site model !
•  Takes into account the electrical work linked to the desorption of 
chemisorbed water!
•  Establish the speciation of surface species, the stoichiometry and 
the thermodynamic equilibrium constants for the adsorption of 
nucleotides on oxide minerals!
!
Corundum - Al2O3 Hematite - Fe2O3 
Provenance Well studied commercial alumina a , b Forced hydrolysis of acid Fe
III salt solutions at 98°C 
following Schwertmann & Cornell (2000) 
pH ZPC 9.1 a, b 8.5 - 9.5 c, d 
Particle size  ~ 5 microns ~ 40 nm 
Surface area  3.52 m2/g ~ 52 m2/g 
x
y
z
Above : Crystal maker structure of α-
alumina Al2O3 (red = O, blue = Al) 
Below : TEM image of rhombohedral 
hematite nanoparticles used in this study.!
 
 
!
!
 
Adsorption of GMP on Al2O3  (Feuillie et al, 2015)!
5 g/L ; equilibrium reached after 24 h of adsorption!
!
(a) pH profiles of the adsorption of GMP at a constant ionic strength; NaCl 0.1 M. (b) Ionic 
strength effect on the adsorption of GMP on alumina, for a concentration of GMP of 100 μM. 
Alumina: 5 g/L. Experimental error is <0.2 μM of GMP. Symbols are experimental data and solid 
lines are modeling results. !
 !
!
High adsorption at low pH; maximum adsorption at pH 5; > 2 µmol / m2!
No ionic strength effect above pH 5!
Below pH 5, when ionic strength increases the adsorption decreases       similar to phosphate adsorption (He et al, 
1997) !
!
2D structure of ribonucleotides and nucleobases; !
our study focuses on 5’-GMP (Guanosine MonoPhosphate)	  
!
Speciation of aqueous and surface species 
obtained from the ETLM!
 !
!
Summary !
!
•  High adsorption of GMP on both Alumina and Hematite, above 2 µmol/m2!
•  Same behaviour at low pH for both minerals, but higher adsorption at high 
pH for hematite!
•  One mechanism for all nucleotides adsorption on alumina : 1 monodentate 
inner-sphere at low pH, 1 bidentate outer-sphere complex at high pH, 
involving phosphate groups!
•  More strongly bound at low pH : Availability of nucleotides for polymerization 
in the context of the origin of life and in modern soils ?!
!
Adsorption of GMP on Fe2O3         !
0.2 g/L ; equilibrium reached in under one hour of adsorption!
!
pH profiles of the adsorption of GMP on hematite nanoparticles obtained at an ionic strength of (a) NaCl 0 M, (b) NaCl 0.01 M, and 
(c) NaCl 0.1 M. Experimental error is ~ 5%. Symbols are experimental data; dashed lines are guides for the eyes and do not 
represent modeling data. !
!High adsorption, similar to alumina : above 2 µmol / m2!
High adsorption at low pH; maximum adsorption at pH 5.5 – 6 !
Similar ionic strength effect at low pH !
Contrary to alumina, hematite shows adsorption even at high pH!
pH profiles of the adsorption of AMP (a), CMP (b) and UMP (c); nucleotide concentration 50 μM; NaCl 
0.1 M. Symbols are experimental data and black solid lines are modeling results. The monodentate 
inner-sphere is figured in red, the bidentate outer-sphere complex in blue.!
!
Other nucleotides on Al2O3 (Feuillie et al, 2015)         !
5 g/L ; equilibrium reached after 24 h of adsorption!
!
Surface complexation calculations coming soon…!
	  
Characteristics of alumina and hematite used in this study. a: Halter & Pfeifer, 2001; b: Fukushi & Sverjensky, 2007; c: Cornell & Schwertmann, 
2003; d: Sverjensky, 2005!
1 : Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington; 2 : CNRS-UMR 6118, Géosciences Rennes, 
University of Rennes 1; 3 : Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University!
!
a b 
b a c 
b a c 


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Interactions of ribonucleotides with aluminium and iron oxides under varying environmental conditions

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