ADSORCION DE CU(II) MEDIANTE LA UTILIZACIÓN DE BIOPOLÍMEROS GENERADOS A PARTIR DEL CRECIMIENTO DE ACREMONIUM SP. Y APHANOCLADIUM SP. SOBRE UNA MONTMORILLONITA NATURAL

OLIVELLI, MELISA SOLEDAD; MARTINEZ ALVAREZ, LUCAS ; FERNANDEZ, MARIELA; CURUTCHET, GUSTAVO; TORRES SÁNCHEZ, ROSA MARÍA

Cancún

Congreso; VI Congreso de la Sociedad iberoamericana de Física y Química Ambiental (VI CiFyQA); 2011

Sociedad iberoamericana de Física y Química Ambiental

Cu(II) adsorption by biopolymers generated from Acremonium sp. and Aphanocladium sp. growth on montmorillonite clay. Copper is a heavy metal with that represents an actual risk for environment and human health. Its presence in water is the result of anthropogenic activities. Generally, conventional sorption technics are not useful because metals are diluted. Biosorption is an alternative process where biomass allows to concentrate metals from diluted solutions. The fungal biomass is one of the most commonly used biosorbents mainly for its low cost and easy generation. The main drawback in using biological sorbents is to get a proper immobilisation of the biomass or further separation from the suspension treatment. A novel methodology to improve immobilisation and separation is to generate clay biopolymers. Montmorillonite clays have ideal characteristics for this purpose. The objective of this study is to evaluate the Cu(II) sorption capacity in clay biopolymers generated from a montmorillonite clay and two fungi genus: Acremonium sp. and Aphanocladium sp. The biopolymers were characterized by X ray diffraction (XRD) and specific surface. The Cu(II) sorption capacity was determined in Batch systems, showing clay biopolymers a higher Cu(II) sorption capacity than montmorillonite clay. Biomass presence improved clay coagulation and separation from the solution. XRD analysis determined that copper is situated in the clay interlayer space until saturation of this space. The total specific surface was smaller in the presence of biomass in part due to its interactions with the clay. This preliminary study concludes that clay biopolymer systems have great potentiality for the development of efficient and low cost filters for Cu(II) sorption processes.