A review of novel green adsorbents as a sustainable alternative for the remediation of chromium (VI) from water environments

Amna Anjum; Shaukat Ali Mazari; Zubair Hashmi; Abdul Sattar Jatoi; Rashid Abro; Abdul Waheed Bhutto; Nabisab Mujawar Mubarak; Mohammad Hadi Dehghani; Rama Rao Karri; Amir Hossein Mahvi; Simin Nasseri

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15575

A review of novel green adsorbents as a sustainable alternative for the remediation of chromium (VI) from water environments

Heliyon. 2023 Apr 21;9(5):e15575. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15575. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Dawood University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, 74800, Pakistan.
² Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan, BE1410, Brunei Darussalam.
³ Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Center for Water Quality Research, Institute for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Institute for Environmental Research, Center for Solid Waste Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The presence of heavy metal, chromium (VI), in water environments leads to various diseases in humans, such as cancer, lung tumors, and allergies. This review comparatively examines the use of several adsorbents, such as biosorbents, activated carbon, nanocomposites, and polyaniline (PANI), in terms of the operational parameters (initial chromium (VI) concentration (C_o), temperature (T), pH, contact time (t), and adsorbent dosage) to achieve the Langmuir's maximum adsorption capacity (q_m) for chromium (VI) adsorption. The study finds that the use of biosorbents (fruit bio-composite, fungus, leave, and oak bark char), activated carbons (HCl-treated dry fruit waste, polyethyleneimine (PEI) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) PEI-KOH alkali-treated rice waste-derived biochar, and KOH/hydrochloric acid (HCl) acid/base-treated commercial), iron-based nanocomposites, magnetic manganese-multiwalled carbon nanotubes nanocomposites, copper-based nanocomposites, graphene oxide functionalized amino acid, and PANI functionalized transition metal are effective in achieving high Langmuir's maximum adsorption capacity (q_m) for chromium (VI) adsorption, and that operational parameters such as initial concentration, temperature, pH, contact time, and adsorbent dosage significantly affect the Langmuir's maximum adsorption capacity (q_m). Magnetic graphene oxide functionalized amino acid showed the highest experimental and pseudo-second-order kinetic model equilibrium adsorption capacities. The iron oxide functionalized calcium carbonate (IO@CaCO₃) nanocomposites showed the highest heterogeneous adsorption capacity. Additionally, Syzygium cumini bark biosorbent is highly effective in treating tannery industrial wastewater with high levels of chromium (VI).

Keywords: Biosorbent; Chromium (VI); Graphene; Nanocomposite; Polymer; Water environments.

Publication types

Review