Biosorption of Malachite green, a hazardous environmentally persistent textile dye by resting and immobilised cells of mutant Bacillus cereus M 1 16 was standardised. Calcium alginate (3%) was found to be the most suitable and effective matrix for immobilisation of the biomass. Malachite green adsorption up to 91% and 83% was possible using resting and immobilised cells of B. cereus M 1 16 at pH 5.0, temperature 30°C, biomass concentration 0.5 g L −1 , initial dye concentration 100 mg L −1 and contact time 360 min. Redlich-Peterson isotherm model fitted best to the experimental results and pseudo-second-order kinetic model described the process best. Immobilised biomass was efficiently reused up to four consecutive cycles of biosorption. UV-visible spectra analysis of growth media containing the organism in presence of Malachite green showed that the dye was not metabolised by bacterial species. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed the phenomenon of adsorption onto cell surface as the underlying mechanism of dye removal.
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