Title: Asterococcus superbus as a biosorbent of copper, zinc, cadmium and lead: adsorption isotherm and kinetic modelling

Authors: María Mar Areco; María Cecilia Rodríguez; María Dos Santos Afonso

Addresses: Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, INQUIMAE and Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Analítica y Química Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II 3er Piso, C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina ' Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologia Experimental, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II 4to Piso, C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina ' Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, INQUIMAE and Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Analítica y Química Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II 3er Piso, C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract: The adsorption capacity of copper, zinc, cadmium and lead by Asterococcus superbus, a freshwater microalgae, was studied in batch mode. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich models were applied and results demonstrate that for all cases the Langmuir model best describes the adsorption process and that A. superbus isotherm followed the bisorption series, Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd. Kinetic studies demonstrate that the adsorption of zinc and copper follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and that of cadmium and lead follows a pseudo first-order kinetic model. Natural waters present an increasing concentration of heavy metals, mainly due to the effluent discharge in these type or reservoirs. The importance of the present work is to contribute to the study of new methods to diminish the presence of heavy metals in natural waters.

Keywords: Asterococcus superbus; freshwater algae; water pollution; biosorbents; copper; zinc; cadmium; lead; heavy metals; adsorption isotherms; Langmuir; Freundlich; Temkin; Dubinin-Radushkevich; kinetics study; pseudo-first-order kinetic modelling; pseudo-second-order kinetic modelling; intraparticle diffusion models.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENVH.2014.060126

International Journal of Environment and Health, 2014 Vol.7 No.1, pp.83 - 99

Published online: 13 Oct 2014 *

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