Abstract
A bench study was carried out to characterize the kinetics of two plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) Azotobacter chroococcum and Bacillus megaterium to adsorb heavy metals from solution. Adsorption of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ by bacterial cells was processed quickly with an equilibration achieved within 5 min. The adsorptions were fitted well with Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models. The comparison of isotherm parameters indicated that A. chroococcum had a stronger capacity to bind metal ions than B. megaterium, with an average increase of 59.8% for Pb 2+ and 75.6% for Cd 2+, respectively. Both bacteria had a stronger affinity to Pb 2+ than Cd 2+ since Pb 2+ was more easily bound with the phosphoryl groups on the cell surface than Cd 2+. This demonstrated that the presence of bacteria in the rhizosphere may result in the reduction of mobile ions in soil solution.
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