Biosorption of Cu(II) to extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from Synechoeystis sp.: a fluorescence quenching study

Abstract

Biosorption of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from Synechocystis sp. (cyanobacterium) with Cu(II) was investigated using fluorescence spectroscopy. Three fluorescence peaks were found in the excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectra of EPS. Fluorescence of peak A (Ex/Em= 275/452 nm) and peak C (Ex/Em= 350/452 nm) were originated from humic-like substances and fluorescence of peak B (Ex/Em= 275/338 nm) was attributed to protein-like substances. Fluorescence of peaks A, B, and C could be quenched by Cu(II). The effective quenching constants (lg K_a) were 2.8–5.84 for peak A, 6.4–9.24 for peak B, and 3.48–6.68 for peak C, respectively. The values of lg K_a showed a decreasing trend with increasing temperature, indicating that the quenching processes were static in nature. The binding constants (lg K_b) followed the order of peak A>peak B>peak C, implying that the humic-like substances in EPS have greater Cu(II) binding capacity than the protein-like substances. The binding site number, n, in EPS-Cu(II) complexes for peaks A, B, and C was less than 1. This suggests the negative cooperativity between multiple binding sites and the presence of more than one Cu binding site.

Keywords

biosorption / conditional binding constant / extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) / fluorescence quenching

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Program of 100 Distinguished Young Scientists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1120302 and 21177127).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg