Characterization of seaweeds collected from Baixada Santista litoral, and their potential uses as biosorbents of heavy metal cations

This work aims to characterize biosorbent materials based on seaweed present on the littoral of Baixada Santista (São Paulo state, Brazil), and test their adsorption properties to remove heavy metal cations (Co+2, Pb+2, and Cd+2) in water, aiming its future application situ remediations degraded ecosystems. Three types of natural seaweed were studied: Sargassum sp, Ulva lactuca, and Padina sp. These biosorbents collected, pretreated, modified by two chemical treatments: 1) Protonation with HCl, and, 2) Oxidation KMnO4. The preliminary results showed that lactuca is promising for adsorption heavy metal which also very attractive due its great availability ecosystem, it renewable. (natural treatments) characterized Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). best removal values biosorbent (after treatment) were:  65 mg.g-1  Co (II), 71 mg.g-1 Cd(II), 78 Pb(II).