Tellurium Nanorods Produced by the Reduction of Tellurate and Tellurite Inside Unicellular Algae

An addition of oxoanions of tellurium to unicellular alga Pseudococcomyxa simplex resulted in a high accumulation of tellurium: the concentration of Te exceeded 10,000 mg/kg DW after 7 days with tellurite addition.Tellurium was reduced during cellular uptake and nanorods of metallic tellurium were formed in the cells.Electron microscopy of cells without any chemical pretreatment allowed direct observation of the presence of intracellular tellurium nanorods; the addition of tellurite was found to be more effective in terms of length and number.