Cd adsorption onto Anoxybacillus flavithermus: Surface complexation modeling and spectroscopic investigations

Several recent studies have applied surface complexation theory to model metal adsorption behaviour onto mesophilic bacteria. However, no investigations have used this approach to characterise metal adsorption by thermophilic bacteria. In this study, we perform batch adsorption experiments to quantify cadmium adsorption onto the thermophile Anoxybacillus flavithermus. Surface complexation models (incorporating the Donnan electrostatic model) are developed to determine stability constants corresponding to specific adsorption reactions. Adsorption reactions and stoichiometries are constrained using spectroscopic techniques (XANES, EXAFS, and ATR-FTIR). The results indicate that the Cd adsorption behaviour of A. flavithermus is similar to that of other mesophilic bacteria. At high bacteria-to-Cd ratios, Cd adsorption occurs by formation of a 1:1 complex with deprotonated cell wall carboxyl functional groups. At lower bacteria-to-Cd ratios, a second adsorption mechanism occurs at pH > 7, which may correspond to the formation of a Cd-phosphoryl, CdOH-carboxyl, or CdOH-phosphoryl surface complex. X-ray absorption spectroscopic investigations confirm the formation of the 1:1 Cd-carboxyl surface complex, but due to the bacteria-to-Cd ratio used in these experiments, other complexation mechanism(s) could not be unequivocally resolved by the spectroscopic data.