"Vinča" Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, 11351 Belgrade, Serbia.
Institute of Public Health of Serbia "Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut", dr Subotića Starijeg 5, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
Toxins (Basel). 2024 Jul 9;16(7):310. doi: 10.3390/toxins16070310.
Harmful cyanobacteria blooms and the escalating impact of cyanotoxins necessitates the effective removal of cyanobacteria from water ecosystems before they release cyanotoxins. In this study, cyanobacteria removal from water samples taken from the eutrophic Aleksandrovac Lake (southern Serbia) was investigated. For that purpose, novel activated carbons derived from waste biomass-date palm leaf stalk (P_AC), black alder cone-like flowers (A_AC), and commercial activated carbon from coconut shell (C_AC) as a reference were used. To define the best adsorption conditions and explain the adsorption mechanism, the influence of contact time, reaction volume, and adsorbent mass, as well as FTIR analysis of the adsorbents before and after cyanobacteria removal, were studied. The removal efficiency of P_AC and A_AC achieved for the applied concentration of 10 mg/mL after 15 min was ~99%, while for C_AC after 24 h was only ~92% for the same concentration. To check the safety of the applied materials for human health and the environment, the concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTEs), the health impact (HI) after water purification, and the toxicity (MTT and Comet assay) of the materials were evaluated. Although the P_AC and A_AC achieved much better removal properties in comparison with the C_AC, considering the demonstrated genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of the P_AC and the higher HI value for the C_AC, only the A_AC was further investigated. Results of the kinetics, FTIR analysis, and examination of the A_AC mass influence on removal efficiency indicated dominance of the physisorption mechanism. Initially, the findings highlighted the superior performance of A_AC, with great potential to be globally commercialized as an effective cyanobacteria cell adsorbent.
富营养化的 Aleksandrovac 湖（塞尔维亚南部）水样中的蓝藻去除研究。为此，使用了新型的由废生物质-棕榈叶茎（P_AC）、黑桤木锥形花（A_AC）和商用椰子壳活性炭（C_AC）衍生而来的活性炭作为参考。为了确定最佳吸附条件并解释吸附机制，研究了接触时间、反应体积和吸附剂质量的影响，以及吸附剂在去除蓝藻前后的傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）分析。对于应用浓度为 10mg/mL，P_AC 和 A_AC 在 15 分钟后的去除效率约为 99%，而 C_AC 在相同浓度下需要 24 小时才能达到约 92%的去除效率。为了检查所应用材料对人类健康和环境的安全性，评估了潜在有毒元素（PTEs）的浓度、水净化后的健康影响（HI）以及材料的毒性（MTT 和彗星试验）。尽管与 C_AC 相比，P_AC 和 A_AC 的去除性能要好得多，但考虑到 P_AC 表现出的遗传毒性和细胞毒性以及 C_AC 更高的 HI 值，仅对 A_AC 进行了进一步研究。动力学、FTIR 分析和 A_AC 质量对去除效率影响的结果表明，物理吸附机制占主导地位。最初的研究结果突出了 A_AC 的卓越性能，具有成为全球商业化的有效蓝藻细胞吸附剂的巨大潜力。
