Synergistic biosorption between phenol and nickel(II) from Binary mixtures on chemically and biologically modified chitosan beads

The biosorption of phenol and Ni(II) from binary mixtures on glutaraldehyde-crosslinked chitosan beads modified with histidine and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC-HIS-CCBs) was studied at 30 °C. Batch biosorption was performed at the optimal pH of 4.0. Under the concentration ranges studied (25-250 mg L−1 of Ni(II) and 25-250 mg L−1 of phenol), the amounts of the biosorption of both phenol and Ni(II) increased in the presence of the second component in contrast to the corresponding single phenol and Ni(II) systems. That is, synergistic biosorption between phenol and Ni(II) on the SC-HIS-CCBs was observed, particularly for phenol. Isotherm modeling showed that simultaneous biosorption of phenol and Ni(II) from binary solutions could be acceptably described by the modified Langmuir model, which could reflect the nature of chemical adsorption.