Biodegradation of crystal violet using Burkholderia vietnamiensis C09V immobilized on PVA-sodium alginate-kaolin gel beads.

The strain, Burkholderia vietnamiensis C09V was immobilized on PVA-alginate-kaolin gel beads as a biomaterial to improve the degradation of crystal violet from aqueous solution. The results show that 98.6% (30 mg L(-1)) crystal violet was removed from aqueous solution using immobilized cells on PVA-alginate-kaolin gel beads, while 94.0% crystal violet was removed by free cells after degradation at the pH 5 and 30°C for 30 h. Kinetics studies show that the pseudo-second-order kinetics well described the adsorption of crystal violet on the PVA-alginate-kaolin beads. Biodegradation of crystal violet on immobilized cells was fitted well by first-order reaction kinetics, indicating that CV was adsorbed onto kaolin and followed their degradation by immobilized cells onto the the PVA-alginate-kaolin beads. Characterization with SEM shows that cells attached well to the surface of PVA-alginate-kaolin beads, leading to improved crystal violet transfer from aqueous solution to immobilized cells. In addition, UV-vis show that the absorption peak at 588 nm was reduced by the degraded N-bond linkages, as well as the formation of degrading products were observed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). These results suggest that crystal violet was biodegraded to N,N-dimethylaminophenol and Michler's Ketone prior to these intermediates being further degraded.