Component, mechanisms, ecological effect and applications of metastable iron biogeobattery: A review

The biogeobattery describes the redox and electron transfer processes between natural reactive minerals and organic matter, playing a crucial role in the biogeochemical cycling of elements like carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) underground. This process is driven by environmental microbial communities, with active minerals and organic matter acting as electron donors and acceptors. Current studies mainly focus on the material transformations and electron transfer between minerals and organic matter, but there is a lack of systematic review on the components and applications of biogeobatteries. This paper reviews the key minerals and microorganisms that constitute iron-based biogeobatteries, explores their formation mechanisms and electron transfer pathways, and summarizes their environmental applications in carbon storage, bioleaching, soil fertility enhancement, and heavy metal remediation. Finally, future research directions are proposed to improve efficiency and make the biogeobatteries become more practical.