జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ మైక్రోబియల్ & బయోకెమికల్ టెక్నాలజీ

నైరూప్య

Removal of Cd (II) from Aqueous Solution using Immobilized Rhizomucor Tauricus

K. Kishore Kumar, M. Krishna Prasad, G. V. S. Sarma and Ch. V. R. Murthy

An industrial waste fungus Rhizomucor tauricus mycelial biomass was entrapped into alginate gel liquid curing method in the presence of Ca (II) ions. The Biosorption of cadmium (II) by the entrapped live biomass and dead powdered fungal biomass has been studied in a batch system. The binding capacity of immobilized live fungal biomass was very high comparative to dead powdered fungal biomass. The effect of initial metal concentration, pH, temperature and L/S ratio on cadmium removal has been investigated. The maximum experimental biosorption capacities for entrapped live and dead powdered fungal of Rhizomucor tauricus were found to be 79.9 ? 2.2 mg Cd (II) L-1, 57.29 ? 3.4 mg Cd (II) g-1 respectively. The kinetics of cadmium biosorption was slow; approximately 75% of Biosorption takes place in 2 hours. The biosorption equilibrium data were well described by Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The FTIR results revealed that the functional groups -OH and -NH2 involved in the biosorption process.