The objective of this study was to
investigate the effects of the
cultivation time, temperature, and pH value on the yield and composition
of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from
Enterobacter
sp. FM-1 (FM-1) and to analyze the Pb
2+
adsorption behavior
of soluble EPS (S-EPS), loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS), and tightly bound
EPS (TB-EPS). Maximum EPS production was obtained when the cultivation
time, temperature, and pH value were 24 h, 30 °C, and 8.0, respectively.
The main components of EPS were proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic
acids, but the different EPS types contained different proportions
and specific components. The Pb
2+
adsorption capacity of
LB-EPS was 2.23 and 1.50 times higher than that of S-EPS and TB-EPS,
respectively. After Pb
2+
adsorption by LB-EPS, the pH value
of the reaction system decreased to the lowest of 5.23, which indicated
that LB-EPS contained more functional groups that could release H
+
, which will help to better adsorb Pb
2+
through
ion exchange. The three-dimensional excitation–emission matrix
fluorescence spectroscopy (3D-EEM) analysis showed that the fluorescence
intensity of tryptophan-containing substances decreased by 85.5% after
Pb
2+
adsorption by LB-EPS, which indicated the complexation
of tryptophan-containing substances with Pb
2+
. Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
(XPS) O spectra indicated that the C=O peak from protein amide
I of tryptophan-containing substances in LB-EPS was mainly responsible
for the complexation of Pb
2+
. After the adsorption of Pb
2+
, the proportion of the C=O peak in LB-EPS increased
by 33.89%, indicating that the complexation of LB-EPS with Pb
2+
was mainly attributed to the O atom in the C=O terminus
of protein amide I.
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