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Biosorption of heavy metals by the exopolysaccharide produced by Paenibacillus jamilae

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Abstract

The biosorption of several toxic heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Co, Ni, Zn and Cu) by the exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by Paenibacillus jamilae, a potential biosorbent for metal remediation and recovery was studied. Firstly, the biochemical composition of this bacterial polymer was determined. Glucose was the most abundant neutral sugar, followed by galactose, rhamnose, fucose and mannose. The polymer presented a high content of uronic acids (28.29%), which may serve as binding sites for divalent cations. The presence of carboxylic groups was also detected by infrared spectroscopy. The EPS presented an interesting affinity for Pb in comparison with the other five metals. Lead biosorption (303.03 mg g−1) was tenfold higher (in terms of mg of metal adsorbed per gram of EPS) than the biosorption of the rest of metals. Biosorption kinetics, the effect of pH and the effect of competitive biosorption were determined. Finally, we found that the EPS was able to precipitate Fe(III), but the EPS-metal precipitate did not form with Fe(II), Pb(II), Cd(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II).

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Acknowledgements

This work was possible thanks to a FPI fellowship of the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) funded under the Project No. REN 2000-1502.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    José Antonio Morillo Pérez, Rafael García-Ribera, Teresa Quesada, Margarita Aguilera, Alberto Ramos-Cormenzana & Mercedes Monteoliva-Sánchez

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  1. José Antonio Morillo Pérez
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  2. Rafael García-Ribera
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  3. Teresa Quesada
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  4. Margarita Aguilera
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  5. Alberto Ramos-Cormenzana
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  6. Mercedes Monteoliva-Sánchez
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Correspondence to José Antonio Morillo Pérez.

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Morillo Pérez, J.A., García-Ribera, R., Quesada, T. et al. Biosorption of heavy metals by the exopolysaccharide produced by Paenibacillus jamilae . World J Microbiol Biotechnol 24, 2699–2704 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-008-9800-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-008-9800-9

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