Abstract
Biosorption of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from sp. (cyanobacterium) with Cu(II) was investigated using fluorescence spectroscopy. Three fluorescence peaks were found in the excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectra of EPS. Fluorescence of peak A (Ex/Em= 275/452 nm) and peak C (Ex/Em= 350/452 nm) were originated from humic-like substances and fluorescence of peak B (Ex/Em= 275/338 nm) was attributed to protein-like substances. Fluorescence of peaks A, B, and C could be quenched by Cu(II). The effective quenching constants (lg K ) were 2.8–5.84 for peak A, 6.4–9.24 for peak B, and 3.48–6.68 for peak C, respectively. The values of lg K showed a decreasing trend with increasing temperature, indicating that the quenching processes were static in nature. The binding constants (lg K ) followed the order of peak A>peak B>peak C, implying that the humic-like substances in EPS have greater Cu(II) binding capacity than the protein-like substances. The binding site number, , in EPS-Cu(II) complexes for peaks A, B, and C was less than 1. This suggests the negative cooperativity between multiple binding sites and the presence of more than one Cu binding site.