Biosorption characteristics of ectomycorrhizal fungal mycelium for anthracene.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential of Gomphidius viscidus, a kind of ectomycorrhizal fungi, for phytoremediation of anthracene in soil. METHODS: Absorptioe changes of micro-habitat were studied in detail. CONCLUSION: Ectomycorrhizal plants have a strong potential for remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarn characteristics of both active and inactivated mycelia. RESULTS: A high calculated adsorption capacity of 1,886.79 mg/g and 1,515.15 mg/g at 25 °C, pH 6.0 for active and inactivated mycelia respectively, was obtained based on Langmuir model. The ANT biosorption was more ideally characterized by the Langmuir model than by the Freundlich model. The biosorption of anthracene to biomass was extremely fast and could be modeled with pseudo-second order adsorption kinetics. Moreover, ectomycorrhizal mycelia demonstrated a strong ability to adjust the physiological process to get adapted to the change of micro-habitat.