A demanda crescente por água tem feito de seu reuso planejado um tema atual e de grande importância. A reutilização de água pode ser direta ou indireta, decorrente de ações planejadas ou não. Íons metálicos podem ser removidos de soluções aquosas por processos como filtração, flotação, membranas de troca iônica, extração com solventes, eletrodeposição, coagulação e adsorção. Essa última pode ser considerada um método efetivo e barato quando comparado aos demais. Nos últimos anos, a utilização de materiais alternativos de alta capacidade de adsorção, como argila e biomassa, tem sido estudada para esta finalidade. Uma forma de determinar a eficiência de um material como adsorvente é por meio de isotermas de adsorção que indicam a quantidade máxima de material que pode

Water bodies have always been exposed to all types of contaminants, whether natural or anthropogenic, from volcanic eruptions to the deliberate release of untreated chemical sewage. In this context, macrophytes are of great importance to aquatic environments, although still unknown to many. Given the importance of research related to ways of minimizing the harmful effects caused by the pollutant discharges, the objective of this work was to determine the adsorption capacity of metallic elements in aqueous solutions by macrophyte biomass (Eichhornia crasssipes, Egeria densa, Pistia stratiotes and Salvinia auriculata), as a way to contribute to the removal of contaminants from effluents, and also as a way of using the organic matter produced by these plants. The elements analyzed were copper, manganese and vanadium, the latter with few studies reported in the literature. The methodology used consisted of cultivating the plants in an environment free of polluting loads, dry biomass production, determination of physicochemical characteristics, determination of adsorption capacity as a function of pH, contact time and concentration of the elements of interest variation in the solution. The analytical methods employed were neutron activation analysis and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The results indicated that the dry biomass produced did not adsorb the copper. S. auriculata biomass presented the highest removal capacity of Mn and E. Crassipes showed the highest removal capacity of V in aqueous solutions under the conditions in which the procedures were performed in this work.