Avaliação da influência de quitosana na porosidade e resistência de microesferas de alginato/quitosana para imobilização de biomassa para posteiror uso no tratamento de água residuárias.

Abstract

The intense process of population growth has put great pressure on water resources due to the generation of increasing amounts of waste with high polluting potential. Chitosan, a natural polymer obtained from the deacetylation of chitin, has been widely used for its gel-forming capacity, non-toxicity and physical stability in the treatment of effluents both for the immobilization of cells with bioremediation capacity and for adsorption of components present in waste water. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the influence of different chitosan concentrations on alginate / chitosan beads in the following proportions: 4: 1, 1: 2 and 4: 3 (m / m). In order to do so, the morphology of the spheres and porosity by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), degree of swelling and loss of mass for spheres immersed separately in distilled water and sewage were evaluated. The spheres containing 3% of chitosan presented better results in terms of spherical shape maintenance and smaller diameter, as well as the presence of roughness, which considerably increases the surface area of adsorption and / or absorption, a higher degree of swelling for both types of immersion, reaching a maximum value of 750% in distilled water and 413% in sewage. In relation to the loss of mass, 3% chitosan spheres showed lower degradation in the time of 7 days, being 46.49% for those immersed in distilled water and 51.70% in sewage.