Enahanced biosorption of Cu(II) by magnetic chitosan microspheres immobilized Aspergillus sydowii (MCMAs) from aqueous solution

Abstract The magnetic chitosan microspheres immobilized Aspergillus sydowii (MCMAs) was prepared and characterized by SEM, BET, XRD and VSM analyses, and used to adsorb Cu(II) from aqueous solution under different influence factors such as contact time, initial Cu(II) concentration and biosorbent dose. Characterization results showed that MCMAs had large specific surface area and were rapidly separated from aqueous solution by using an adscititious magnetic field. Batch adsorption experiments showed that Cu(II) adsorption capacity of MCMAs was up to 119.21 mg g−l under the optimal condition. The CO, OH and NH groups played an important role in Cu(II) chelation observed from FTIR spectra. Cu(II) adsorption onto MCMAs was well described by pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm, and the adsorption process involved surface and intra-particle diffusion. In addition, MCMAs showed good recyclable efficiency after four adsorption-desorption cycles.