The photoelectron generation from semiconducting minerals and its effects in critical zone

Critical zone, the most heterogeneous and complex area on Earth, is an extreme complicated open system. In the critical zone, the interactions between minerals and microorganisms, which have not been fully understood yet, happen all the time. This review paper summarizes the recent research results in the field of minerals and microorganisms interactions, emphasizes the research results of semiconducting minerals and microorganisms synergistic interactions, and briefly introduces the features of natural semiconducting minerals and the semiconducting mineral photoelectrons, the promotion of life origin and evolution by mineral photoelectrons, the discovery of the microorganisms that utilize photoelectronic energy (we call them photoelectrophic microorganisms) and the carbon dioxide fixation by the synergy between soil mineral photoelectrons and microorganisms. The electron transfer and energy flow between minerals and microorganisms are one of the most important kinetic mechanisms in the critical zone. The investigation of the micro-mechanisms of how natural semiconducting minerals transfer solar energy to chemical energy or biomass will provide theoretical evidences to reveal that how the interactions between multiple spheres in the critical zone impact the macro progress of Earth evolvement, life evolution and environment development, which provides a lot of opportunities of scientific discoveries and theoretic breakthroughs.