A high-resolution titrator: a new approach to studying binding sites of microbial biosorbents

The high-resolution potentiometric titration was used as a physico-chemical method to study the acid properties of selected biosorbent materials in order to quantify the functional acidic groups for sorption and to determine their affinities by considering their partial or total ionization equilibrium reactions. The Granʹs method and the Henderson–Hasselbachʹs equation were employed in establishing the partition of the total acidity as associated with strong, weak and very weak acidic chemical active groups. The differences in the total organic acidity (ATO) for the two selected types of bacteria and two mycelia revealed by this method were explained by the chemical composition of their cell walls. The total organic acidities obtained were 3.87 me g−1 for Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, 1.31 me g−1 for Corynebacterium glutamicum, 0.81 me g−1 for Aspergillus niger and 2.54 me g−1 for Rhizopus arrhizus. The links between the activity of protons and the sorption capacities of the selected bioorganic matters were established. Sorption of lead by C. glutamicum and R. arrhizus biomass indicated an optimum pH of 6. It appeared that 64% (Pb(uptake)=0.48 me g−1) and 38% (Pb(uptake)=0.28 me g−1) of ATO were involved during lead sorption onto R. arrhizus and C. glutamicum, respectively. The applications of titration techniques become a powerful tool for the characterization of heterogeneous materials involved in biosorption and bioremediation processes.