Research Article Biosorption of Microelements by Spirulina: Towards Technology of Mineral Feed Supplements

Copyright © 2014 Agnieszka Dmytryk et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Surface characterization and metal ion adsorption properties of Spirulina sp. and Spirulina maxima were verified by various instrumental techniques. FTIR spectroscopy and potentiometric titration were used for qualitative and quantitative determination of metal ion-binding groups. Comparative FTIR spectra of natural and Cu(II)-treated biomass proved involvement of both phosphoryl and sulfone groups in metal ions sorption. The potentiometric titration data analysis provided the best fit with the model assuming the presence of three types of surface functional groups and the carboxyl group as the major binding site. The mechanism of metal ions biosorption was investigated by comparing the results from multielemental analyses by ICP-OES an