Singh Namita Ashish
School of Bioscience, Institute of Management Studies, UC Campus, Ghaziabad, UP- 201015. India.
Recent Pat Biotechnol. 2017;11(3):197-203. doi: 10.2174/1872208311666170223155019.
Patents reveal that heavy metals are natural constituents of the earth's crust, but some heavy metals like cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic etc. are injurious to living organisms at higher concentration. Nowadays, anthropogenic activities have altered geochemical cycles and biochemical balance of heavy metals. Biomolecules are used nowadays for removal of heavy metals compared to other synthetic biosorbents due to their environmental friendly nature and cost effectiveness.
The goal of this work is to identify the role of biomolecules like polysaccharides, polypeptides, natural compounds containing aromatic acid etc. for heavy metal removal by bio sorption.
It has been observed that efficiency of biomolecules can be increased by functionalization e.g. cellulose functionalization with EDTA, chitosan with sulphur groups, alginate with carboxyl/ hydroxyl group etc. It was found that the porous structure of aerogel beads improves both sorption and kinetic properties of the material. Out of polypeptides metallothionein has been widely used for removal of heavy metal up to 88% from seawater after a single centrifugation.
These cost effective functionalized biomolecules are significantly used for remediation of heavy metals by immobilizing these biomolecules onto materials.
专利显示重金属是地壳的天然成分，但某些重金属，如镉、铅、汞、砷等，在高浓度时对生物体有害。如今，人为活动改变了重金属的地球化学循环和生化平衡。与其他合成生物吸附剂相比，生物分子因其环境友好性和成本效益，如今被用于去除重金属。
这项工作的目标是确定多糖、多肽、含芳香酸的天然化合物等生物分子在通过生物吸附去除重金属中的作用。
据观察，通过功能化可以提高生物分子的效率，例如用乙二胺四乙酸（EDTA）对纤维素进行功能化、用含硫基团对壳聚糖进行功能化、用羧基/羟基对藻酸盐进行功能化等。发现气凝胶珠的多孔结构改善了材料的吸附和动力学性能。在多肽中，金属硫蛋白在单次离心后已被广泛用于从海水中去除高达88%的重金属。
这些具有成本效益的功能化生物分子通过将这些生物分子固定在材料上，被大量用于重金属修复。
