Influential bio-removal of mercury using Lactarius acerrimus macrofungus as novel low-cost biosorbent from aqueous solution: Isotherm modeling, kinetic and thermodynamic investigations

Lactarius acerrimus macrofungus was evaluated as low-cost and influential biosorbent for bio-removal of Hg(II) from aqueous solution. The chemical structure and surface morphology of the macrofungus was characterized by using FT-IR and SEM/EDS techniques. The Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms were modeled to study the sorption behavior regarded with for bio-removal of mercury using the batch method. The Langmuir model was found to be the best fitted model. The maximum bio-removal capacity of the macrofungus was found to be 134.9 mg/g at pH 5. The batch experiments were also to investigate to point out different parameters having a vital the bio-removal of mercury. The kinetic studies indicated thatthe pseudo second order (PSO) model was best fitted to the experimental values. The thermodynamic parameters proved the spontaneous and exothermic nature of the bio-removal process. Furthermore, the cycling examinations demonstrated that the L. acerrimus macrofungus had reasonable reuse performance.