Enhancement of U(VI) biosorption by Trichoderma harzianum mutant obtained by a cold atmospheric plasma jet

Trichoderma harzianum (T. harzianum) was isolated from uranium mill tailing soils, and a cold atmospheric plasma jet as a mutational method was applied for the treatment of T. harzianum to improve its performance of U(VI) biosorption. The effects of pH, adsorption time and biosorbent doses were performed on the biosorption of U(VI) by T. harzianum and mutated T. harzianum at different environmental conditions. The maximum adsorbability for U(VI) on mutated T. harzianum was 83.59 mg/g at 303 K and pH 6.0, which was observably better than the raw T. harzianum. FTIR analysis indicated that the functional groups on the surface of mutated T. harzianum interacting with U(VI) were primarily hydroxyl, amino and carboxyl groups. SEM coupled with EDX analysis demonstrated that U(VI) can be adsorbed to mutated T. harzianum, and the surface of mutated T. harzianum became rough and incompact after the biosorption. This study showed that the mutated T. harzianum could be considered as a highly effective biosorbent for removal of U(VI) from radioactive wastewater.