Investigation of heavy metals sorption behavior of isolated bacterial cell wall components of Gram-positive bacteria using ICP-MS and TRLFS

Attention for heavy metal removal and recovery has been increasing as their demand and scarcity increase. The property of certain types of biomass to remove heavy metals from the environment has encouraged the search of novel biosorbents for technology development. In this work the heavy metal biosorption of two Gram-positive bacteria strains Lysinibacillus sphaericus bacterial (JG-A12 and JG-B53) isolated from the uranium mining waste pile Haberland (Johanngeorgenstadt, Saxony) has been investigated. The metal binding capacities of the isolated main three cell wall components (peptidoglycan, lipids and surface-layer proteins) and the heavy metal uptake of the intact bacteria have been studied for eight different heavy metals (palladium, cadmium, platinum, gold, lead, europium and uranium). Lysinibacillus sphaericus JG-B53 probed to have higher heavy metal binding capacities and uptakes. The best biosorbent for both strains was the peptidoglycan and the higher binding capacities were observed for uranium, lead and europium. Finally in order to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the biosorption of metal ions, the Eu3+ was used as a fluorescent probe and investigated with time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) as it interacted with the different biosorbents. The results although complexed to interpreted due to the inherent complexity of the biosorbents showed clearly the Eu3+-biosorbent binding and are an important basis for further complexation studies.