Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Probing elemental and structural heterogeneities is essential for understanding how materials evolve and degrade, yet correlating chemical and structural information across mesoscale specimens at the nanoscale remains analytically challenging. Here, we introduce a nondestructive correlative workflow that combines three-dimensional data sets from nanoscale X-ray ptychographic and fluorescence tomographies acquired on the same sample at dedicated synchrotron instruments. This workflow was developed and applied to quantify metal traces within individual low-Z compartments of a whole 1.88-billion-year-old Gunflint microfossil exhibiting a distinctive nanoscale architecture characteristic of thick-walled Huroniospora . Beyond the thick wall containing pluri-micrometer-sized quartz crystals with nanoinclusions, our analyses reveal an extracellular shell composed of submicrometer-sized quartz and Fe 2+ -rich greenalite embedded within an Fe 3+ -rich chert matrix. The specimen is unfractured and contains organic matter comparable to that of modern bacterial cells of similar volume. The trace sensitivity achieved in the multimetal three-dimensional maps, combined with precise volumetric quantification at nanometer scales, enabled accurate determination of metal concentrations in fossil compartments. Iron and manganese levels comparable to those of extant photosynthetic microorganisms, together with manganese–calcium-enriched iron silicate cores, suggest a cyanobacterial lineage and provide new insights into early microbial metabolisms. This correlative workflow, enabling high-sensitivity multielement trace analysis of low-Z nanostructured mesoscopic systems without physical subsampling, is broadly transferable to applications ranging from biominerals and geobiological materials to advanced functional materials such as catalysts, batteries, and nanocomposites.
Source: Analytical Chemistry
Institutions: École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Lyon, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Paul Scherrer Institute, Swiss Light Source, Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, CEA Grenoble, Institut de Biologie Structurale, Université Grenoble Alpes, Laboratoire de Chimie, University of Alberta, California State University, Chico
Language: English
Subfield: Radiation
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
OpenAlex ID: W7146937045