Acid-bacterial leaching of pyrite single crystal

To clarify the role of crystallographic orientation of the ore on the react ion mechanism of bacterial oxidation, single crystals of pyrite were oxidiz ed by using Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and representative plane orientations of (100) and (111) of pyrite were adopted for this purpose. According to S EM and AFM characterization, the surface corrosion associated with microbia l oxidation seems different between (100) and(111) planes.