Screening the heavy metal removal capacity of magnetically modified fungal biosorbent

With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, heavy metal pollution has increased rapidly. Compared to traditional methods, biosorption is a well-known process to remove heavy metals, which is environmentally friendly. In the present study, the removal of Pb(II), Cd(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) heavy metals with magnetically enhanced P. chrysosporium was investigated. Maximum biosorption capacity for all tested heavy metal ions was obtained at pH 6.0 and 25 degrees C, and biosorption capacity reached a plateau at the end of 60 min. Maximum Pb(II), Cd(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) biosorption capacities were calculated as 18.6, 18.2, 15.9 and 13.6 mg/g at 100 mg/mL initial concentrations of all tested metal ions, respectively. In addition, EDTA was verified as a promising desorption agent as a result of reusability experiments performed with ten cycles. On the other hand, the biosorption reaction was indicated to be fitted Langmuir adsorption isotherm and second-order kinetic model for each metal. Consequently, magnetically modified P. chrysosporium (M-P. chrysosporium) can be introduced as a promising biosorbent with any requirement of filtration or centrifugation making them applicable in many research fields.