Biological process for synthesis of semiconductor copper sulfide nanoparticle from mine wastewaters

• Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the major water pollution problem of the open pit copper mines.
• A new biological process was developed to remove the copper ions from wastewater.
• Using this technology, semiconductor metal sulfide nanoparticles can be produced directly from wastewater.
• The produced nanoparticles had a covelite composition with a particle size of about 10–40 nm.

Acid mine drainage, ore processing and different metal extraction operations during copper ore mining cause severe environmental pollution problems like the contamination of surface and mine water with high loads of heavy metal which is furthermore a great loss for the copper mining industry. Several techniques for the removal of heavy metal from such wastewaters have been described. One of those techniques is the use of biological processes to produce metal sulfide nanoparticles with semiconductor characteristics. Hence, the purpose of this study was to improve the understanding regarding the biological synthesis of nanoparticles and by this means to produce copper sulfide nanoparticles from mine wastewaters. Using acid mine drainage of Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex (Kerman, Iran) copper sulfide nanoparticles were synthesized biologically. In this process Fusarium oxysporum was added to the wastewater and biosynthesized nanoparticles were collected. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Thermogravimetry (TG), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Mass Spectrometry (MS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the produced nanoparticles from mine wastewater. The results showed that the produced nanoparticles had a covelite composition with particle size about 10–40 nm.