Biosorption of manganese(II) using suspended and immobilized cells of fungal Penicillium camemberti (biomass) and nano-P. camemberti (nano-biomass) was studied by evaluating the physicochemical parameters of the solution such as initial manganese ion concentration, pH, temperature, dosage, and contact time in both batch system and fixed bed column. The maximum biosorption obtained from the batch process was 91.54 and 71.08 % for nano-biomass and biomass in initial concentration of 5 ppm, respectively. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and BET isotherms isotherm models were used in the equilibrium modeling. The correlation coefficient of more than 0.90 turned out that the adsorption process of Mn(II) on biomass and nano-biomass were in accordance with both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The sorption process followed a second-order rate kinetics indicating the process to be diffusion controlled. The results also demonstrate that an intra-particle diffusion mechanism plays a significant role in the sorption process. The structure of P. camemberti was characterized by FT-IR spectrums.
