UNCORRECTED PROOF 1 Q1 Development of a novel myconanomining approach for 2 the recovery of agriculturally important elements from 3 jarosite waste 4 Q2 Q3 Ankita Bedi 1, 3 , Braj Raj Singh 1 , Sunil K. Deshmukh 1 , Nisha Aggarwal 2 , 5 Colin J. Barrow 3 , Alok Adholeya 1, ⁎ 6 1. TERI–Deakin Nanobiotechnology Centre, Biotechnology and Management of Bioresources Division, The Energy and Resources Institute 7 (TERI), New Delhi 110003, India. E-mail: ankita.bedi@teri.res.in 8 2. Sri Aurobindo College, Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, New Delhi 110007, India 9 3. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Victoria 3216, Australia 10 12 ARTICLE INFO 13 ABSTRACT 14 Article history: 15 Received 21 March 2017 16 Revised 15 September 2017 17 Accepted 30 September 2017 18 Available online xxxx 19 In this study, an ecofriendly and economically viable waste management approach have been 20 attempted towards the biosynthesis of agriculturally important nanoparticles from jarosite 21 waste. Aspergillus terreus strain J4 isolated from jarosite (waste from Debari Zinc Smelter, 22 Udaipur, India), showed good leaching efficiency along with nanoparticles (NPs) formation 23 under ambient conditions. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and transmission 24 electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the formation of NPs. Energy dispersive X-ray 25 spectroscopy (EDX analysis) showed strong signals for zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium, 26 with these materials being leached out. TEM analysis and high resolution transmission 27 electron microscopy (HRTEM) showed semi-quasi spherical particles having average size of 28 10–50 nm. Thus, a novel biomethodology was developed using fungal cell-free extract for 29 bioleaching and subsequently nanoconversion of the waste materials into nanostructured 30 form. These biosynthesized nanoparticles were tested for their efficacy on seed emergence 31 activity of wheat (Triticum aestivum) seeds and showed enhanced growth at concentration of 32 20 ppm. These nanomaterials are expected to enhance plant growth properties and being 33 targeted as additives in soil fertility and crop productivity enhancement. 34 © 2017 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 35 Published by Elsevier B.V. 36 Keywords: 37 Bioleaching 38 Fourier transform infrared 39 spectroscopy (FTIR) 40 Transmission electron 41 microscopy (TEM) 42 Jarosite 43 Nanoparticles 44 Seed-emergence activity 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Introduction 52 Presently, an annual production of approximately 960 million 53 tonnes (MT) of solid waste as by-products of processes like 54 industrial, mining, agricultural and municipal has been 55 reported in India. Out of this, around 4.5 MT are considered 56 to be hazardous in nature Q4 (Er. Nitisha Rathore and Er. 57 Devendra, 2014). Jarosite is one such important solid waste 58 material, which is generated during the hydrometallurgical 59 metallic zinc extraction process of zinc industries. Currently, 60 substantial quantity of jarosite waste is being generated 61 universally and China, Canada, USA, Japan, Australia, Spain, 62 Holland, France, Yugoslavia, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Norway, 63 Germany, Argentina, Belgium and India are top producers 64 (Pappu et al., 2011). Approximately 2.5 MT of such zinc 65 residues are being disposed of per annum globally (Asokan, JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES XX (2017) XXX – XXX ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail: aloka@teri.res.in (Alok Adholeya). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2017.09.017 1001-0742/© 2017 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/jes JES-01323; No of Pages 12 Please cite this article as: Bedi, A., et al., Development of a novel myconanomining approach for the recovery of agriculturally important elements from jarosite waste, J. Environ. Sci. (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2017.09.017