Chromate sorption and reduction kinetics onto an aminated biosorbent.

A novel biosorbent was prepared by chemically grafting of polyethylenimine (PEI) onto the fungal biomass of Penicillium chrysogenum through a two-step reaction. The modified biosorbent is favorable for the removal of anionic Cr(VI) species from aqueous solution due to the protonation of amine groups on the biomass surface. The sorption capacity for Cr(VI) increased by 7.2-fold after surface modification. Sorption kinetics results show that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model described the experimental data well. During the sorption process, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to analyze the chromium species on the biosorbent surface and the results indicate that part of the Cr(VI) ions were reduced to Cr(III) ions which can be chelated with the amine groups on the biomass surface. The reduced Cr(III) ions formed some aggregates on the surface at higher solution pHs.