Biosorption of benzidine based textile dyes "Direct Blue 1 and Direct Red 128" using native and heat-treated biomass of Trametes versicolor.

The capacities and mechanisms of native and heat-treated white rot fungus "Trametes versicolor" biomass in removing of two different benzidine based dyes (i.e., Direct Blue 1, DB-1 and Direct Red 128, DR-128) from aqueous solution was investigated with different parameters, such as molecular weight of dye, adsorbent dosage, pH, temperature and ionic strength. In the batch system, the biosorption equilibrium time for both dyes was about 6h. The maximum biosorption was observed at pH 6.0 for DB-1 and at pH 3.0 for DR-128 on the native and heat-treated fungal biomass. The biosorption capacities of the native and heat-treated fungal biomass (at 800 mg/L dye concentration) were found to be 101.1 and 152.3 mg/g for DB-1 and these were 189.7 and 225.4 mg dye/g biomass for DR-128, respectively. The Freundlih and Temkin adsorption isotherm models were used for the mathematical description of the biosorption equilibrium. The Freundlich and Temkin models were able to describe the biosorption equilibrium of DB-l and DR-128 on the native and heat-treated fungal preparations. The Freundlich model also showed that the small molecular weight dye (i.e., DR-128) had a higher affinity of adsorption that than of the higher molecular weight dye (i.e., DB-1). The dye biosorption on the fungal biomass preparations followed the second order kinetics model.