Throughout time heavy metals have been widely used in different industries. Consequently, their impact on the ecosystems is increasing gradually, affecting not only water but also the air and soil, endangering animals, plants and human beings. As a response to this need, biosorption was developed and improved as a water treatment method over the past three decades. Algae is typically used as a biosorbent because of its high binding capacity. In most of the previous studies, the adsorption capacity of the biosorbents has been discussed (how much they removed) instead of what are the mechanisms controlling this capacity (why the biosorption occurred). Understanding why one biosorbent can adsorb a contaminant when others do not is the first step to have better selection criteria and hence avoid trial and error processes. Two green algae (Monostroma nitidum and Oedogonium obesum) were selected based on their cell wall structures. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out to measure and compare the adsorption capacity from both algae. Also, FTIR, SEM, MNR experiments were conducted to understand why they have different adsorption capacities and what is their mechanism in terms of the functional groups contained in their cell wall.
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