Simultaneous removal of heavy metals and cyanate in a wastewater sample using immobilized cyanate hydratase on magnetic-multiwall carbon nanotubes

Global environmental problems allied with waste management require novel approaches for the simultaneous removal of heavy metals and other associated compounds including cyanate. In this study, iron-oxide filled multi-walled carbon nanotubes (m-MWCNTs) were successfully synthesized and characterized by field emission gun scanning electron microscopy (FEGSEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The m-MWCNTs were amino-functionalized for the covalent immobilization of a recombinant cyanate hydratase (rTl-Cyn), and were characterized by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The immobilized rTl-Cyn on the m-MWCNTs (m-MWCNT-rTl-Cyn) had long term storage stability and showed great potential towards cyanate biodegradability. We found that m-MWCNT-rTl-Cyn retained > 94% of the initial activity even after 10 repeated cycles of bio-catalysis. Strikingly, the m-MWCNT-rTl-Cyn simultaneously reduced the concentration of chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) by 39.31, 35.53, 34.48 and 29.63%, respectively as well as the concentration of cyanate by >= 84%, in a synthetic wastewater sample.