Author(s)

Fang Chen^1,2, Budan Chen^1,2, Guojuan Gan^1,3, Lin Zhang^1,2, Yan Liang^1,3, Sikai Wu^1,2*

¹Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen, China.
²Guangzhou Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
³Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China.

To investigate the affinity of the terrestrial microalgae to metal ions (Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺ and Ni²⁺) in aqueous solutions, four kinds of living algae (Oscillatoria, Botryococcus, Scenedesmus and Spirulina platensis Geitl, abbreviated as CZ, PTZ, SZ and LXZ) were chosen to biosorption experiment, and the mechanism of algae biosorption to metal ions were explored by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results show that four kinds of algae have a good affinity for Cu, Zn, the removal rate could reach more than 95%; while for Ni, compared with CZ, SZ and PTZ, the adsorption rate of LXZ is weak. The results of FTIR and SEM experiments revealed that the function groups such as carboxyl, hydroxyl, amino, sulfonic groups and so on are the main groups which played important role in the procedure of absorbing metal ions from water aqueous. Specific algae have different affinity to different metals which will be great helpful in the field of biosorption.

Microalgae, Biosorption, SEM, FTIR

Chen, F. , Chen, B. , Gan, G. , Zhang, L. , Liang, Y. and Wu, S. (2016) Biosorption of Zn²⁺ and Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺ by Four Kinds of Active Microalgae. Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 4, 12-19. doi: 10.4236/msce.2016.411002.