Nature Environment and Pollution Technology

D. Charumathi ¹, R. Vimala ¹, Nilanjana Das ¹

Affiliations
1 School of Biotechnology, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore-632 014, Tamil Nadu, IN

Abstract

Studies have shown that fungal organisms possess the capacity of heavy metal removal. In the present investigation, a study in batch system was conducted using the macrofungus, Agaricus bisporus as biosorbent for evaluating its potentiality to adsorb lead (II) ions from aqueous solution. To improve the bioadsorption capacity, the biosorbent was pretreated with NaOH, Na₂CO₃ and NaHCO₃. Pretreatment with NaOH resulted in a significant improvement in bioadsorption capacity. The experimental equilibrium data were adjusted by adsorption isotherms from Langmuir and Freundlich models and their equilibrium parameters were determined. For the untreated biosobent, the Langmuir model supplied q_max = 28.8 mg/g and b = 0.02 L/mg and for the Freundlich model parameters are K_f= 1.7 and n =1.8. For the sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treated biomass, the parameters were q_max = 34.6 mg/g, b= 0.08 L/mg, K_f = 5.3 and n = 2.3. The best adjusted model to the experimental equilibrium data for both untreated and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treated biosorbent was the Langmuir model.

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