Spectroscopic study of Zn2+ and Co2+ binding to extracellular polymeric subst…

Abstract. The interacting mechanisms of metallic cations (Zn2+ and Co2+) to active chemical groups on the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of the aerobic granules, including loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) and tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS), were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. For Zn2+ and Co2+, LB-EPS showed stronger bi…