Effect of pretreatment on the bioadsorption of heavy metals on Mucor rouxii

Different chemicals were used to study the effect of pretreatment of Mucor rouxii biomass on bioadsorption of Pb, Cd, Ni and Zn. Pretreatment with detergent and alkali chemicals such as NaOH, Na 2 CO 3 and NaHCO 3 were found to improve or maintain the bioadsorption capacity in comparison with live M. rouxii biomass. Acid pretreatment using HCl, H 2 SO 4 and C 2 H 4 O 2 resulted in a significant reduction in the bioadsorption capacity. Pretreatment using CaCl 2 and NaCl slightly reduced the bioadsorption capacity. All the pretreatment methods resulted in a reduction in biomass in comparison with autoclaved biomass. In addition, M. rouxii biomass pretreated with chemicals without autoclaving was still viable, even after boiling. To improve the bioadsorption capacity for metal ions by dead biomass, alkali pretreatment is an effective method, but the loss of biomass after the pretreatment should be taken into consideration while assessing the bioadsorption performance.