Bioaccumulation and biosorption of bismuth Bi (III) by filamentous fungus Aspergillus clavatus

In this work we focused on bismuth (III) biosorption and bioaccumulation. Prior the bioaccumulation experiments the 7-day-old conidia were collected from mycelia surface of filamentous fungus Aspergillus clavatus and used as inocula for 50 ml of nutrient media with different bismuth (III) concentrations. After 15-day cultivation under laboratory conditions (dark, 25 grad C) the bismuth concentration in grown fungal biomass was measured using ICP OES. Maximum achieved accumulation capacity of dry biomass was 112 μmol.g-1. Batch biosorption experiments were performed in Erlenmeyer flasks with pelletized wet fungal biomass/solution ratio 1.8% and with various bismuth (III) concentrations. The equilibrium time was studied within the time interval of 0-240 min. The reaction kinetics were well described by both pseudo-first and pseudo-second order rate models, and equilibrium was reached after 50 min. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to represent equilibrium data, and the calculated maximum biosorption capacity of fungal biomass for bismuth(III) was 0.40 mmol.g-1. (authors)