A novel biosorbent: characterization of the spent mushroom compost and its application for removal of heavy metals.

The spent mushroom compost of Lentinus edodes was used as a biosorbent for adsorbing cadmium, lead and chromium from solutions under batch conditions for the first time. Titration of the biomass revealed that it contained at least three types of functional groups. The Fourier transform infrared spectrometry showed that the carboxyl, phosphoryl, phenolic groups were the main groups. The simulated values of pKH and molar quantity were 5.00 and 0.44 mmol/g, 7.32 and 1.38 mmol/g, 10.45 and 1.44 mmol/g, respectively. The biosorption ability increased with pH in acid condition. When 10 mg/L biomass dosage was added in, there was no significant increment of metal uptake. The maximum uptake estimated with the Langmiur isotherm model were 833.33 mg/g for Cd(II), 1000.00 mg/g for Pb(II) and 44.44 mg/g for Cr(III), respectively. All the results showed that vast potential sorption capacity was existed in the biomass for adsorbing these three kinds of metals studied.