Immobilization of cyanobacteria and microalgae on polyethylenimine-based sorbents

Immobilization of phototrophic microogranisms: microalgae (MA) and cyanobacteria (CB) on polyethylenimine (PEI)-based sorbents was studied. For this purpose, 3 insoluble porous polymeric materials were synthesized by cross-linking of PEI with epichlorohydrine and immobilization of PEI on the surface of styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer. The sorbent on the basis of cross-linked PEI was also alkylated with hexadecyl bromide to achieve hydrophobicity of its surface. The analysis of kinetics and efficiency of immobilization assessed for the model MA and CB cultures revealed the significant difference in the sorption activity of different types of sorbents depending on their synthesis procedure, chemical composition and hydrophilic-hydrophobic properties of polymeric surface. The hydrophobic sorbent obtained by immobilization of PEI on the surface of styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer characterized by very low sorption activity towards CB and MA cells. The highest immobilization efficiency of phototrophic cells was achieved for the hydrophilic sorbent on the basis of PEI cross-linked with epichlorohydrine, which provided the attachment of 50–70% of cells during 3 h of incubation. The hydrophobic sorbent based on alkylated cross-linked PEI effectively immobilized CB cells, while the colonization of the polymer surface by MA cells was very scarce. The noticed effect is explained by difference in prokaryotic (CB) and eukaryotic (MA) types of surface structures organization. Assessment of photosynthetic activity of immobilized MA cells by pulse-modulated fluorometry showed that hydrophobic sorbents had no toxic effect on the cells, while toxicity of hydrophilic cross-linked PEI-based sorbent was observed only after long-term cultivation ofphototrophic cells with this sorbent.