J. Pugh and T. G. Chasteen

Department of Chemistry
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, Texas 77341-2117

A 2.7 L bioreactor was inoculated with a facultative anaerobe Pseudomonas fluorescens K27. The culture was amended with 10 mM sodium tellurite. Seventy-two hours later, in the late stationary growth phase, solid and liquid phases were separated by high speed centrifugation and the solid resuspended and overlain on a solution consisting of several layers of sucrose of varying concentrations. Following high speed centrifugation, the sucrose density gradient allowed for the separation of bacterial cells and elemental tellurium. Fractionated samples consisting of sucrose, 10% nitric, and tellurium were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The method detection limit (MDL) for tellurium in solutions was determined in varying concentrations of sucrose.