Abstract

Using copper and cadmium decontaminating plants has been one of the most important ways in purification of water supplies in recent years. The present study was conducted to investigate the possibility of using monocellular diatom alga (Nitzchia) to decontaminate water from copper and cadmium heavy metals. So far, the researchers used four different copper and cadmium heavy metal consistencies of 0.5, 2, 8 and 16 ppm to treat alga. Together with investigating the concentration of the metals absorbed by alga after 14 days of incubation, its growth, chlorophyll a, carotenoids, soluble sugars, and superoxide dismutase and catalase enzymes were also studied. The results then proved a high potential for algae to decontaminate water from Cu and Cd, while the top decontamination rate was found at the highest primary concentration (16 ppm). And also at all treatments, except 0.5ppm and 2 ppm, a descending order in copper growth was apparent, while for chlorophyll a, although it increased in all copper treatments, it had a descending order in all cadmium treatments. The concentration of the carotenoids was highly irregular, although the highest amount was at 8 ppm. A growth was also apparent in reductant glucose measures and the activity of catalase and super oxide dismutase enzymes.

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