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Preparation of a magnetic Escherichia coli biosorbent for efficient dye removal from aqueous solutions

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Synthetic dyes in industrial wastes are highly toxic, non-biodegradable and resistant to treatment processes and may pose serious threats to the environment and human health. Due to their high adsorption capacity, biocompatibility and easy magnetic separation, magnetic biosorbents, especially E. coli -based bio-nanocomposites, are considered promising adsorbents. However, studies on the simultaneous removal of both anionic and cationic dyes using such materials remain limited. The γ-Fe 2 O 3 @ E. coli magnetic biosorbent was successfully synthesized and characterized using various analytical techniques, including FT-IR, XRD, VSM, EDX, DLS, and FE-SEM. The effects of solution pH, initial dye concentration, biosorbent dosage, temperature and contact time were systematically investigated, with optimum conditions of pH 4, 30 °C, 20 mg/L, 0.025 g and 30 min for MO, and pH 10, 35 °C, 8 mg/L, 0.02 g and 30 min for MB, respectively. Under these conditions, the removal efficiencies were 94.90 and 95.14%, with equilibrium adsorption capacities of 9.49 and 3.81 mg/g for MO and MB, respectively. Equilibrium studies indicated that the Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models best described the experimental data, indicating heterogeneous adsorption with multilayer characteristics and non-uniform adsorption sites. The biosorbent maintained high removal efficiencies over six consecutive adsorption–desorption cycles, decreasing from 95.14 to 91.36% for MB and from 94.90 to 87.62% for MO. These results demonstrate that the γ-Fe 2 O 3 @ E. coli biosorbent combines effective dye removal with magnetic recoverability and good reusability, supporting its potential application in sustainable wastewater treatment.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-74595-0
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
OpenAlex ID: W7220413168
FWCI:
Cites: 2
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Related to: 10