Biosorption of aluminum through the use of non-viable biomass ofPseudomonas putida

PAOLA SABRINA BOERIS; MARÍA DEL ROSARIO AGUSTÍN; DIEGO FERNANDO ACEVEDO; GLORIA INÉS LUCCHESI

JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 236 p. 57 - 63

0168-1656

Living and non-living biomass of Pseudomonas putida A (ATCC 12633) was used as biosorbent for the removing of Al3+ from aqueous solutions. The process was stable with time, efficient at pH 4.3 and between 15 ºC and 42 ºC. Two isotherms models were applied to describe the interaction between the biosorbent and Al3+. Non-living biomass of P. putida A (ATCC 12633) was found to be the most efficient at adsorbing Al3+ with a maximum sorption capacity of 0.55 mg Al3+/gr adsorbent and with 36 x 105 binding sites of Al3+/microorganisms. Infrared spectroscopy analysis shows that the biosorbent present some vibrational band of functional groups that change in presence of Al3+: hydroxyl, carboxyl and phosphate. Considering that Al3+ binds to the phosphate group of phosphatidylcholine, non-viable biomass of P. putida PB01 (mutant lacking phosphatidylcholine) was used. Aluminum adsorption of the parental strain was 30 times higher than values registered in P. putida PB01 (36 x 105 sites/microorganism vs 1.2 x 105 sites/microorganism, respectively). This result evidenced that the absence of phosphatidylcholine significantly affected the availability of the binding sites and consequently the efficiency of the biomass to adsorb Al3+.