ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Biosorption of Antimony (Sb)
by the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp.
Daoyong Zhang1,2, Xiangliang Pan3,4, Li Zhao3, Guijin Mu3
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1State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China
2Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan, China
3State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
4Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Bioremediation, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2011;20(5):1353-1358
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Antimony (Sb) pollution has been of growing environmental concern. Little information is available on
biosorption of Sb. In the present study, biosorption behavior and mechanisms of Sb(III) to the cyanobacterium
Synechocystis sp. cells were investigated by batch experiments and FTIR analysis. Our study shows that
Synechocystis sp. cells are a good adsorbent for Sb(III) with a sorption capacity of 4.68 mg·g-1 dry weight
adsorbent. The isothermal sorption data can be described by the Langmuir Isotherm and the Freundlich
Isotherm. Several mechanisms were involved with biosorption of Sb to Synechocystis sp. cells and sorption to
binding sites might be dominant. The sorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second order model. The adsorbed
Sb is mainly located in extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) and within the cell, and a small proportion was
adsorbed onto the cell wall. The proteins and polysaccharides in EPS and the polysaccharides on the cell are
the main functional groups that are responsible for adsorption of Sb to Synechocystis sp. cells.