Comparison of Nickel Biosorption Properties of Living and Dead Rhizopus arrhizus Biosorbent

Abstract

The passive removal of commonly used heavy metal Ni(II), from aqueous solutions by inexpensive biomaterial, fungi Rhizopus arrhizus biomass, termed biosorption, was studied in this study. The effects of biomass type (living and dead) and pH (2-6) on metal removal by fungus were investigated. The dead biomass (44.2%) exhibited higher uptake ability of Ni(II) than living biomass (40.5%) at 100 mg/L heavy metal after 6 h. Optimal pH for biosorption was 6.