Studies of cadmium(II), lead(II), nickel(II), cobalt(II) and chromium(VI) sorption on extracellular polymeric substances produced by Rhodococcus opacus and Rhodococcus rhodochrous.

The adsorption of Cd(II), Pb(II), Ni(II), Co(II) and Cr(VI) ions on the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) obtained from bacterial strain Rhodococcus opacus and Rhodococcus rhodochrous was investigated by the static sorption method. Influence of pH, time and temperature were studied. It was found that the influence of the pH value and time of adsorption depends on the type of adsorbed ions. For all investigated systems an increase of temperature above 35°C reduces adsorption. However, the static sorption capacities values oscillate around 1.5mmol/g, independently of the type of the studied metal ions. The adsorption mechanism of studied metal ions onto the tested EPSs seems to be very complex and it is probably due to an electrostatic attraction, a surface complex formation and chemical interaction between the metal ions and the functional groups (mainly hydroxyl, acetamido or amino groups) of bacterial extracellular biopolymers.