Biosorption of Basic Blue 7 by fungal cells immobilized on the green-type biomatrix of <i>Phragmites australis</i> spongy tissue

<p>Biosorption is an effective alternative method for the control of water pollution caused by different pollutants such as synthetic dyes and metals. A new and efficient biomass system was developed from the passively immobilized fungal cells. The spongy tissue of <i>Phragmites australis</i> was considered as the carrier for the immobilization of <i>Neurospora sitophila</i> cells employed for the biosorption of Basic Blue 7. This plant tissue was used for the first time as a carrier for fungal cells. The biosorption was examined through batch- and continuous-mode operations. The biosorption process conformed well to the Langmuir model. Maximum monolayer biosorption capacity of the biosorbent was recorded as 154.756 mg g⁻¹. Kinetic findings showed a very good compliance with the pseudo-second-order model. The negative values of Δ<i>G</i>° indicated a spontaneous nature of the biosorption process and a positive value of Δ<i>H</i>° (14.69 kJ mol⁻¹) concluded favorable decolorization at high temperature. The scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that a porous, rippled, and rough surface of biomass system was covered with BB7 molecular cloud. IR results revealed that functional groups like –OH, –NH, and C˭O participated to the decolorization. Breakthrough and exhausted points were found as 360 and 570 minutes, respectively. The biomass system was successfully applied to the treatment of real wastewater.