Sustainable zinc ion Removal via Magnetic Cladosporium Herbarum: Rapid Biosorption, Reusability
摘要
This study introduces a sustainable magnetic nanobiosorbent derived from Fe3O4 nanoparticles immobilized onto Cladosporium herbarum (Fe3O4@CH) for the effective removal and quantification of Zn(II) in aqueous and food matrices. The synthesized composite was characterized using various techniques, confirming successful immobilization and demonstrating a significant adsorption capacity of 760.1 mg/g, approximately 7.3 times that of the raw biomass (103.1 mg/g). The adsorption process was highly pH-dependent, with optimal removal observed at pH 8.0. Equilibrium data conformed to the Langmuir isotherm model (R2 = 0.977), and kinetic analysis followed pseudo-second-order kinetics (R2 = 0.997), suggesting chemisorption involving Zn–O and Zn–N coordination, as corroborated by XPS analysis. The analytical method exhibited excellent performance, with LOD of 0.079 µg/L, LOQ of 0.264 µg/L, and RSD of 2.38%. The nanobiosorbent retained over 95% removal efficiency after 10 adsorption–desorption cycles and demonstrated high tolerance to various interfering ions at up to 250 mg/L. Application to microwave-assisted digested bulgur samples yielded recovery rates of 95%-105%, confirming analytical accuracy and minimal matrix effects. These findings highlight that Fe3O4@CH is an efficient, reusable, and cost-effective magnetic biosorbent with considerable potential for trace Zn(II) removal and quantification in complex matrices.
Graphical Abstract