Characteristics of Chlorella sp Biomass Immobilized on Chitosan (Chlo-Kit) for Adsorption of Chromium(III) Solution

Titin Anita Zaharah (Jurusan Kimia, Fakultas MIPA, Universitas Tanjungpura, Kalimantan Barat)
Anis Shofiyani (Jurusan Kimia, Fakultas MIPA, Universitas Tanjungpura, Kalimantan Barat)
Endah Sayekti (Jurusan Kimia, Fakultas MIPA, Universitas Tanjungpura, Kalimantan Barat)

ALCHEMY Jurnal Penelitian Kimia
Vol 11, No 1 (2015): March

Properties of biosorbent prepared from biomass of Chlorella sp immobilized on chitosan (Chlo-Kit) have been studied for adsorption of Chromium(III). Chlo-Kit adsorbent prepared by following steps: dissolving chitosan to get hydrogel form, immobilization of biomasson chitosan hydrogel, beads formation and crosslinkingthe adsorbent beads using epichlorohydrin reagent.Characterization using FT-IR spectrophotometry  and SEM showed that mechanism of biomass immobilization on chitosan involves electrostatic interactions between the functional groups of such both materials. Biomass immobilized on chitosan (Chlo-Kit) showed the higher stability in acid medium than un-immobilized biomass. Adsorption of Cr(III) metal ion on Chlo-Kit occured at optimum pH of 4-5 and followed well the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. The adsorption capacity of Cr(III) on Chlo-Kit was 68.965 mg/g, about 91% higher than that on Chlorella biomass