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Abstract: Yeast biomass was methylated in a 0.1 M HCl methyl alcohol solution at room temperature and the methylated yeast (MeYE) was applied to the adsorptive separation of Cr(VI) and As(V) anions from aqueous solutions. At near-neutral pH, while Cr(VI) and As(V) anions were scarcely adsorbed onto unmethylated yeast biomass, the amounts adsorbed increased with increasing methylation degree. The amount of Cr(VI) adsorbed onto MeYE was almost constant at pH 4–6 and decreased with increasing pH above pH 6. The amount of As(V) adsorbed onto MeYE was rather lower than that of Cr(VI) and it had a peak at about pH 7. A metal-binding model was used to describe the adsorption characteristics of Cr(VI) and As(V) on MeYE. The results showed that MeYE has two different types of adsorption sites. The saturated amount of Cr(VI) and As(V) adsorbed onto MeYE having methylation degree 0.94 was 0.55 mmol g-1. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A new biosorbent, methylated yeast (MeYE), was prepared for the adsorptive separation of proteins from aqueous solutions. Yeast was methylated in a 0.1 M HCl methyl alcohol solution at room temperature. About 80% of the carboxylic groups of yeast could be methylated within 9 h. The adsorption of egg albumin onto MeYE was studied to evaluate the protein adsorption ability of MeYE. At near neutral pH, egg albumin was scarcely adsorbed onto unmethylated yeast and the adsorbed amount of egg albumin increased with increasing methylation degree. The amount of egg albumin adsorbed onto MeYE increased with increasing pH from 4 to 7 and steeply decreased above pH 7. The Langmuir isotherm was applied to determine the apparent adsorption constant and the saturated adsorbed amount of egg albumin on MeYE. Both the apparent adsorption constant and the saturated adsorbed amount increased with the degree of methylation. The saturated adsorbed amount of egg albumin onto MeYE having methylation degree 77% was 8.41×10−6 mol g−1 or 0.378 g g−1 at near neutral pH. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]