Study of binary and single biosorption by the floating aquatic macrophyte salvinia natans

Abstract

The performance of Salvinia natans macrophyte to recover lead and chromium from single and bicomponent solutions in batch and fixed bed systems was investigated. Equilibrium data were obtained through isotherms and fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich and D-R models for a single component system. In the fixed bed study the breakthrough curves were carried out at three different ratios of concentrations for the bicomponent study and at the concentration of 1 mmol.L-1 for the single system. In order to know the biosorption mechanism, FT-IR analyses were performed for S. natans before and after the uptake of metal ions. The results showed different functional groups in the biomass and the ability of these groups to bind Cr+3 and Pb2+. Studies of the binary system of Cr3+/Pb2+ are not common in the literature, which makes the experimental data obtained in this work very important for providing information that could be used in adsorption processes.