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Sulfur Cycle
The sulfur cycle is a biogeochemical cycle in which the sulfur moves between rocks, waterways and living systems. It is important in geology as it affects many minerals and in life because sulfur is an essential element (CHNOPS), being a constituent of many proteins and cofactor (biochemistry), cofactors, and sulfur compounds can be used as oxidants or reductants in microbial respiration. The global sulfur cycle involves the transformations of sulfur species through different oxidation states, which play an important role in both geological and biological processes. Steps of the sulfur cycle are: * Mineralization of Organosulfur compounds, organic sulfur into inorganic forms, such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), elemental sulfur, as well as sulfide minerals. * Oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, sulfide, and elemental sulfur (S) to sulfate (). * Reduction of sulfate to sulfide. * Incorporation of sulfide into organic compounds (including metal-containing derivatives). * Disproportionation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sulfur Cycle - English
Sulfur (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with the chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature. Sulfur is the tenth most abundant element by mass in the universe and the fifth most common on Earth. Though sometimes found in pure, native form, sulfur on Earth usually occurs as sulfide and sulfate minerals. Being abundant in native form, sulfur was known in ancient times, being mentioned for its uses in ancient India, ancient Greece, China, and ancient Egypt. Historically and in literature sulfur is also called brimstone, which means "burning stone". Almost all elemental sulfur is produced as a byproduct of removing sulfur-containing contaminants from natural gas and petroleum.. Downloahere The gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sulfur Assimilation
Sulfur assimilation is the process by which living organisms incorporate sulfur into their biological molecules. In plants, sulfate is absorbed by the roots and then transported to the chloroplasts by the transipration stream where the sulfur are reduced to sulfide with the help of a series of enzymatic reactions. Furthermore, the reduced sulfur is incorporated into cysteine, an amino acid that is a precursor to many other sulfur-containing compounds. In animals, sulfur assimilation occurs primarily through the diet, as animals cannot produce sulfur-containing compounds directly. Sulfur is incorporated into amino acids such as cysteine and methionine, which are used to build proteins and other important molecules. Sulfate uptake by plants Sulfate uptake occurs in roots. The maximal sulfate uptake rate is generally already reached at sulfate levels of 0.1 mM and lower. The uptake of sulfate by the roots and its transport to the shoot appears to be one of the primary regulatory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reducing Agent
In chemistry, a reducing agent (also known as a reductant, reducer, or electron donor) is a chemical species that "donates" an electron to an (called the , , , or ). Examples of substances that are common reducing agents include hydrogen, carbon monoxide, the alkali metals, formic acid, oxalic acid, and sulfite compounds. In their pre-reaction states, reducers have extra electrons (that is, they are by themselves reduced) and oxidizers lack electrons (that is, they are by themselves oxidized). This is commonly expressed in terms of their oxidation states. An agent's oxidation state describes its degree of loss of electrons, where the higher the oxidation state then the fewer electrons it has. So initially, prior to the reaction, a reducing agent is typically in one of its lower possible oxidation states; its oxidation state increases during the reaction while that of the oxidizer decreases. Thus in a redox reaction, the agent whose oxidation state increases, that "loses/Electron d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetrathionate
The tetrathionate anion, , is a sulfur oxyanion derived from the compound tetrathionic acid, H2S4O6. Two of the sulfur atoms present in the ion are in oxidation state 0 and two are in oxidation state +5. Alternatively, the compound can be viewed as the adduct resulting from the binding of to SO3. Tetrathionate is one of the polythionates, a family of anions with the formula ''n''(SO3)2sup>2−. Its IUPAC name is ''2-(dithioperoxy)disulfate'', and the name of its corresponding acid is ''2-(dithioperoxy)disulfuric acid''. The Chemical Abstracts Service identifies tetrathionate by the CAS Number 15536-54-6. Formation Tetrathionate is a product of the oxidation of thiosulfate, , by iodine, I2: :2 + I2 → + 2 I− The use of bromine instead of iodine is dubious as excess bromine will oxidize the thiosulfate to sulfate. Structure Tetrathionate's structure can be visualized by following three edges of a rectangular cuboid, as in the diagram below. The structure shown i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxyanion
An oxyanion, or oxoanion, is an ion with the generic formula (where A represents a chemical element and O represents an oxygen atom). Oxyanions are formed by a large majority of the chemical elements. The formulae of simple oxyanions are determined by the octet rule. The corresponding oxyacid of an oxyanion is the compound . The structures of condensed oxyanions can be rationalized in terms of AO''n'' polyhedral units with sharing of corners or edges between polyhedra. The oxyanions (specifically, phosphate and polyphosphate esters) adenosine monophosphate ( AMP), adenosine diphosphate ( ADP) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) are important in biology. Monomeric oxyanions The formula of monomeric oxyanions, , is dictated by the oxidation state of the element A and its position in the periodic table. Elements of the first row are limited to a maximum coordination number of 4. However, none of the first row elements has a monomeric oxyanion with that coordination number. Instead, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyatomic Ion
A polyatomic ion (also known as a molecular ion) is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that usually has a net charge that is not zero, or in special case of zwitterion wear spatially separated charges where the net charge may be variable depending on acidity conditions. The term molecule may or may not be used to refer to a polyatomic ion, depending on the definition used. The prefix ''poly-'' carries the meaning "many" in Greek, but even ions of two atoms are commonly described as polyatomic. In older literature, a polyatomic ion may instead be referred to as a '' radical'' (or less commonly, as a ''radical group''). In contemporary usage, the term ''radical'' refers to various free radicals, which are species that have an unpaired electron and need not be charged. A simple example of a polyatomic ion is the hydroxide ion, which consists of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen ato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxidation State
In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical Electrical charge, charge of an atom if all of its Chemical bond, bonds to other atoms are fully Ionic bond, ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons) of an atom in a chemical compound. Conceptually, the oxidation state may be positive, negative or zero. Beside nearly-pure ionic bonding, many covalent bonds exhibit a strong ionicity, making oxidation state a useful predictor of charge. The oxidation state of an atom does not represent the "real" charge on that atom, or any other actual atomic property. This is particularly true of high oxidation states, where the ionization energy required to produce a multiply positive ion is far greater than the energies available in chemical reactions. Additionally, the oxidation states of atoms in a given compound may vary depending on Electronegativities of the elements (data page), the choice of electronegativity scale used in their calculation. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sulfate-reducing Bacteria
Sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM) or sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRP) are a group composed of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and sulfate-reducing archaea (SRA), both of which can perform anaerobic respiration utilizing sulfate () as terminal electron acceptor, reducing it to hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Therefore, these sulfidogenic microorganisms "breathe" sulfate rather than Allotropes of oxygen, molecular oxygen (O2), which is the terminal electron acceptor reduced to water (H2O) in Anaerobic respiration, aerobic respiration. Most sulfate-reducing microorganisms can also reduce some other oxidized inorganic sulfur Chemical compound, compounds, such as sulfite (), dithionite (), thiosulfate (), trithionate (), tetrathionate (), Allotropes of sulfur, elemental sulfur (S8), and polysulfides (). Other than sulfate reduction, some sulfate-reducing microorganisms are also capable of other reactions like disproportionation of sulfur compounds. Depending on the context, "sulfate-reduc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polysulfide
Polysulfides are a class of chemical compounds derived from anionic chains of sulfur atoms. There are two main classes of polysulfides: inorganic and organic. The inorganic polysulfides have the general formula . These anions are the conjugate bases of polysulfanes . Organic polysulfides generally have the formulae , where R is an alkyl or aryl group. Polysulfide salts and complexes The alkali metal polysulfides arise by treatment of a solution of the sulfide with elemental sulfur, e.g. sodium sulfide to sodium polysulfide: In some cases, these anions have been obtained as organic salts, which are soluble in organic solvents. The energy released in the reaction of sodium and elemental sulfur is the basis of battery technology. The sodium–sulfur battery and the lithium–sulfur battery require high temperatures to maintain liquid polysulfide and -conductive membranes that are unreactive toward sodium, sulfur, and sodium sulfide. Polysulfides are ligands in coordination ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemolithotroph
Lithotrophs are a diverse group of organisms using an inorganic substrate (usually of mineral origin) to obtain reducing equivalents for use in biosynthesis (e.g., carbon dioxide fixation) or energy conservation (i.e., ATP production) via aerobic or anaerobic respiration. While lithotrophs in the broader sense include photolithotrophs like plants, chemolithotrophs are exclusively microorganisms; no known macrofauna possesses the ability to use inorganic compounds as electron sources. Macrofauna and lithotrophs can form symbiotic relationships, in which case the lithotrophs are called "prokaryotic symbionts". An example of this is chemolithotrophic bacteria in giant tube worms or plastids, which are organelles within plant cells that may have evolved from photolithotrophic cyanobacteria-like organisms. Chemolithotrophs belong to the domains Bacteria and Archaea. The term "lithotroph" was created from the Greek terms 'lithos' (rock) and 'troph' (consumer), meaning "eaters of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacteria
Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit the air, soil, water, Hot spring, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, and the deep biosphere of Earth's crust. Bacteria play a vital role in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients and the nitrogen fixation, fixation of nitrogen from the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of cadaver, dead bodies; bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process. In the biological communities surrounding hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, extremophile bacteria provide the nutrients needed to sustain life by converting dissolved compounds, suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabolism. ''Photosynthesis'' usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen, cellulose and starches. To use this stored chemical energy, an organism's cells metabolize the organic compounds through cellular respiration. Photosynthesis plays a critical role in producing and maintaining the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere, and it supplies most of the biological energy necessary for complex life on Earth. Some bacteria also perform anoxygenic photosynthesis, which uses bacteriochlorophyll to split hydrogen sulfide as a reductant instead of water, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
