Ferns can accumulate rare earth elements from the soil. Chinese scientists describe in the journal Environmental Science & Technology reported on their “self-assembly” in plant tissues Xinhua News Agency.
Rare earth metals are vital to clean energy and high-tech applications, but their supply faces both environmental and geopolitical challenges.
Until now, biomineralization was considered characteristic of microorganisms and animals and underestimated in plants. Now, scientists from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered that in the vascular bundles and epidermal tissue of the fern Blechnum Orientale, rare earth elements absorbed from the soil precipitate as nanoparticles and crystallize into monazite (La).
Monazite is an industrially important rare earth mineral, formed primarily by geological processes. It often contains associated radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium, which complicates enrichment and extraction of valuable raw materials.
Unlike natural monazite, “biomonazite” formed by B. Orientale under natural conditions at clean room temperature and pressure, is non-radioactive and shows clear promise for environmentally friendly mining of rare earth elements.
Thus, the scientific and industrial potential of “plant exploitation” has been confirmed, especially with the wide distribution of B. oriental in Southeast Asia.
