The biosorption of Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Cu²⁺ from aqueous solution by fruiting bodies and spores of Oudemansiella radicata

Abstract

In this study, sorption capacity of fruiting bodies and spores of Oudemansiella radicata were evaluated on biosorption of heavy metals, viz. lead, cadmium and copper from aqueous solutions. The optimum sorption conditions for each metal were analysed separately. Evaluation of the experimental data in terms of biosorption dynamics showed that the biosorption of three metals followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model well. The fitness of the biosorption data for Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were investigated. It was found that the biosorption process for all three heavy metals fitted with Freundlich adsorption isotherm models. The different size of the adsorbent particles was found to have an irregular influence on the adsorption. Scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometry analysis confirmed the obvious change of the surface morphology and the presence of metal on the biosorbent after biosorption. The fourier transform infrared spectra analysis indicated that the chemical interactions as ion-exchange were mainly involved in the biosorption.

Keywords:

• Biosorption
• Fruiting bodies
• Spores
• Mushrooms
• Heavy metals

Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National 863 High Technology Research and Development Programme of China (No. 2006AA06Z361), Science and Technology Supportive Project of Sichuan Province, China (No. 2009SZ0204) and Chengdu Technical Project (No. 10GGYB472SF-023). The authors wish to thank Professor Guanglei Cheng and Dong Yu from Sichuan University for their technical assistance.