Abstract
Industrial and agricultural activities discharges huge amount of hazardous pollutants that lead to massive environmental pollution and health hazards. Keratin is a fascinating protein and useful biopolymer, which is usually found in wool, human hair, nails, feathers, etc. The present research deals with the potentiality of human hair towards removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution through batch mode. The adsorbent was characterized by pHZPC and SEM study. The Cr(VI) adsorption was studied with the help of different process parameters, viz. initial concentration, contact time, adsorbent dose, pH, and temperature. Results revealed that Cr(VI) adsorption by human hair was highly pH sensitive. Maximum Cr(VI) was adsorbed from water at pH 1.0. Study of temperature effect on chromium adsorption confirmed the endothermic behaviour of the process. On the other hand, thermodynamic properties were also calculated and found that physisorption was dominant with activation energy of 0.385 kJ mol−1. Kinetic study revealed that pseudo-second-order model was followed by the adsorption process. Adsorption equilibrium was analysed with Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models. Results showed that the adsorption system followed both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms with Langmuir adsorption capacity of 9.852 mg g−1, which was compared with other adsorbents and observed that the performance of the present adsorbent is better than others. Finally, it can be concluded that human hair could be an alternative chief low-cost waste material for decontamination of heavy metals from an aqueous medium.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Introduction
Heavy metal-induced pollution has remarkably increased due to excessive discharges of heavy metals from various industries including metallurgical, steel manufacturing, fertilizer, including sponge iron, etc. (Rajapaksha et al. 2018; Gu et al. 2015). Among the different heavy metals, chromium has been specially attracted due to its both mutagenic and carcinogenic activities (Kazakis et al. 2017). Chromium exists in various oxidation states including Cr(III), which is mainly presence in the aqueous medium under acidic condition (pH 3.5) as Cr3+, Cr(OH)2+, Cr(OH)3 and Cr(OH) −4 . However, under oxidizing conditions Cr exists as Cr(VI)-oxoanion species such as HCrO4− (pH 4–6) or CrO42− (pH 8–10). The mobility of hexavalent chromium is higher than trivalent chromium in the aqueous medium (Brose and James 2013). The lower oxidation state of chromium can be precipitated after reduction of Cr(VI) (Hsu et al. 2009). In the soil enriched with Fe and Mn oxides, Cr(VI) can be adsorbed through sorption process under acidic condition (Zhang et al. 2017). Cr(VI) is a powerful oxidant which can oxidize the biomolecules and subsequently induce toxicity. The usual toxicity symptoms are necrosis, irritation of the gastrointestinal mucosa, etc. Hexavalent chromium is also known for its mutagenic and carcinogenic nature (Eleftheriou et al. 2015). Chromium can enter into the cell in the form of chromate (CrO42−) through sulphate uptake channel. After insertion, Cr(VI) interacts with reducing biomolecules through formation of labile intermediates, and possibly this labile intermediate interacts with biomolecules including the bases of DNA (Feng et al. 2017). This may cause the main toxicity of hexavalent chromium.
Various technologies are available in the literature for removal of hexavalent chromium from the aqueous medium such as coagulation, precipitation, osmosis, and electrodialysis. However, all the above technologies have serious limitation due to high operational cost and generation of huge sludge. The above difficulties can be removed by using a cost-effective and high-performance technique known as adsorption (Liu et al. 2019).
Previous literature (Manjuladevi et al. 2018; Khulbe and Matsuura 2018; Mohan et al. 2005) highlighted a large number of adsorbents, which are mainly used for removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. Various adsorbents such as biochar, activated carbon, and clay have been investigated (Rajapaksha et al. 2018; Nethaji and Sivasamy 2014; Khan et al. 2010). However, none of the above adsorbents showed good performance towards removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous medium. Therefore, there is a tremendous need of a suitable adsorbent, which should be easily available and greener one.
Hair is a complex tissue of animal body. It contains many chemicals which are mainly played as a main structural component. Human hair consists of proteins (65–95%), water, lipids, pigment, and trace elements (Ekop and Eddy 2010). Human hair is normally disposed as solid waste generated after hair cutting. These hairs can be used as an excellent adsorbent towards removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions (Tan et al. 1985). Previous literature (Ingole et al. 2014) highlighted that human hair is an excellent adsorbent which removes oil from wastewater. However, there is not enough information regarding the efficacy of human hair to remove chromium from aqueous medium under varying different operating variables (pH, initial concentration, dose, contact time, temperature, etc.).
Materials and methods
Collection and preparation of adsorbent
Hair sample was collected from the different saloons of Burdwan town. After collection, the hair was washed with shampoo and dried in shade followed by cut into very small 1 mm in size by using electric cutter and stored in plastic airtight container for further use.
Characterization of adsorbent
-
(a)
pH of zero-point charge
pH of zero-point charge was measured by following the method adopted by Bhaumik and Mondal (2015) through solid addition method. A series of 100-mL conical flask contains 50 mL of 0.1 M KNO3 in each flask. The pH of solution was adjusted from 1.0 to 10.0 by using 0.1 (N) NaOH or 0.1 (N) HCl. Then, 0.2 g of hair was added to each flask and capped properly and sets into a shaker for 48 h and then filtered and measured the final pH of the solution.
-
(b)
Scanning electron micrography (SEM)
The SEM (HITACHI, S-530, Scanning Electron Microscope and ELKO Engineering) study was performed with both before and after adsorption of hexavalent chromium in a fixed resolution to understand morphological change of human hair.
Preparation of Cr(VI) solution
A stock solution of K2Cr2O7 was prepared by exactly weighing 0.2828 g of potassium dichromate in 250 mL double distilled water and finally diluted to 1 L which is equivalent to the strength of 100 mg L−1. The pH of the experimental solution was adjusted by using 0.1 (N) HCl or 0.1 (N) NaOH solution.
Estimation of Cr(VI)
After performing adsorption study, the percentage of removal is calculated by using the following equation (Eq. 1):
where C0 and Ce are the initial and final concentrations of Cr(VI). The chromium concentration was measured by atomic adsorption spectrometry (LABINDIA, AS8000).
The adsorption capacity of human hair is calculated by the following equation (Eq. 2):
where V and M are the volume of the solution in litter and weight of solute taken in gram.
Regeneration study
Regeneration of the exhausted adsorbent can be done by 0.1 (M) NaOH solution. The saturated adsorbent was taken in a conical flask containing 0.1 M NaOH and placed in a magnetic starrer at 200 rpm for 30 min. After first cycle of filtration, the same thing has been done for the next 30 min.
Results and discussion
Adsorbents characterization
Analysis of pHZPC
From the pHZPC study, it is clear that all the three adsorbents showed different zero-point charge. The zero-point charge of human hair is 6.9363 (Fig. S1). The charges on the surface of adsorbents depend on these pHZPC values below and above the pHZPC; the surface of the adsorbents changes to positive and negative charges, respectively. However, at the pHZPC point, adsorbent surface has no charge at al. As per the literature, chromium species present in different oxy-anionic forms such as CrO =4 , HCrO4− or Cr2O =7 at acidic pH and the present experiment suggests that all the three adsorbents showed maximum Cr(VI) removal at acidic pH 1 and it is below the pHZPC value. Therefore, it can be suggested that Cr(VI) adsorption is favourable when the surface of the adsorbent is positive. Almost similar observation was reported by the earlier researchers (Saha et al. 2013).
SEM study
Figure 1a exhibits the scanning electron micrography of human hair before adsorption of hexavalent chromium. From Fig. 1a, it is clear that human hair is layer-like structure without any deformation. However, after adsorption of Cr(VI), the surface of human hair is very rough in nature (Fig. 1b). This is perhaps due to effective interaction of Cr(VI) with protein structure (α-keratin) of hair (Zhang et al. 2018; Mahdavian 2014).
Effect of initial concentration
The removal of Cr(VI) from the aqueous solution by using human hair was studied by varying initial concentration of Cr(VI) from 10 to 30 mg L−1, and the results are depicted in Fig. 3. From figure S2, it is clear that for a fixed amount of adsorbent (0.02 g), pH (1), contact time (30 min) and temperature (40 °C), percentage of Cr(VI) removal increases with increasing initial concentration from 10 to 30 mg L−1. Therefore, the present results highlighted that the adsorbents support to bind the metal at a higher concentration. Results also revealed that at lower concentration (up to 15 mg L−1) the Cr(VI) is not so impressive. However, at 20 mg L−1, the percentage of Cr(VI) removal reached to 81.82%. Almost similar enhanced rate of adsorption of Zn2+ and Pb2+ by human hair was recorded with increasing concentration (Ekop and Eddy 2010). It was also noted that with increasing initial concentration from 10 to 30 mg L−1, the adsorption capacity of the Cr(VI) in human hair increased from 11.175 to 62.365 mg g−1 (Fig. S2). This enhancement of adsorption with increasing initial concentration of Cr(VI) is attributed by the fact that the increase of driving force and also overcome the mass transfer resistance of metal ions between solid–liquid interphase (Khambhaty et al. 2009).
Effect of adsorbents dose
The influences of adsorbent dosage (0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 g human hair) on the adsorption of Cr(VI) ions at 40 °C are shown in figure S3. With the increase in biosorbent dose from 0.01 to 1.0 g/50 ml, the percentage of Cr(VI) removal increased from 57.43 to 98.77%. This is probably due to the availability of active binding sites where Cr(VI) ions adsorbed (Mohamed et al. 2017; Khambhaty et al. 2009). On the other hand, further increase in adsorbent dose did not cause any improvements towards adsorption of Cr(VI). This is perhaps due to the establishment of equilibrium between the ions bound to the sorbent and those remaining unabsorbed in the solution. The study results also revealed that after reaching an optimum dose, no further improvement towards removal of Cr(VI) was recorded. This can be attributed by the fact that the surface of newly added adsorbent will no longer active due to agglomeration or overlapping (Meng et al. 2017).
Effect of pH
pH is an important factor that strongly influenced the heavy metal adsorption (Gupta et al. 2001; Park et al. 2005a). Figure S4 illustrates the percentage of adsorption capacity with the variation of pH from 1 to 10. The maximum and minimum Cr(VI) removal was recorded at pH 1 and 10, respectively, for initial concentration of 30 mg L−1. At low pH, the availability of H+ ions increases near the adsorbent surface, and subsequently, the ionic species of Cr(VI) undergo electrostatic interaction with positive surface. But at higher pH, adsorbent surface changes to negative due to excessive OH− ions and subsequently Cr(VI) biosorption got decreased (Dehghani et al. 2016). This observation is very much consistent with the earlier work where Cr(VI) was removed by various adsorbents (Bari and Abraham 2001; Park et al. 2005b; Tewari et al. 2005).
Effect of contact time
The adsorption of chromium ions on human hair was investigated as a function of contact time (10–60 min) at constant initial concentration (30 mg L−1) and fixed temperature 55 °C. As figure S5 shows, the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) ions from aqueous solution increases rapidly up to 50 min. The high removal efficiency at the initial stages is probably due to the availability of large number of active adsorption sites which saturated with time. The maximum removal (99.96%) was reported at 50 min. However, after 50 min, the removal decreased to 98.5% at 60 min. Therefore, this has been considered as the optimum contact time for adsorption of Cr(VI). Almost similar efficiency towards removal (99.66%) of Cr(VI) by quaternized chitosan microspheres at 50 min was reported by Hua et al. (2016).
Effect of temperature
Previous literature (Wang et al. 2008; Khambhaty et al. 2009) suggested that temperature is an initial factor for removal of heavy metal from aqueous solution through adsorption mechanism. Therefore, the present experiment was conducted to examine the effect of temperature on removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution (Fig. S6). Figure S6 shows that with increasing temperature from 30 to 55 °C, the percentage of Cr(VI) removal increases from 85.86% to 97.8% . That means percentage of Cr(VI) removal favoured with temperature. Therefore, this observation clearly suggests that Cr(VI) interaction with the human hair is absolutely endothermic one. Almost similar temperature dependency of Pb2+ and Zn2+ removal by human hair was reported by Ekop and Eddy (2010).
Isotherm study for human hair
On the basis of experimental results, biosorption isotherm was used to understand the interaction pattern of Cr(VI) with human hair, at equilibrium. The Langmuir model was based on the assumption that the adsorbate only attached to the specific sites of the adsorbent surface, suggesting that the uptake of adsorbate is absolutely unilayer without interaction between adsorbate molecules. The following form of Langmuir equation (Eq. 3) is traditionally applied:
Equation (Eq. 4) can be conveniently transformed to the following linearized form:
where qm is the maximum uptake (mg g−1), qe the uptake capacity at equilibrium (mg g−1), Ce the equilibrium solution concentration (mg L−1), b the Langmuir constant (L/mg). The output of Langmuir constant (qm and b) and correlation coefficient (R2) are presented in Table 1. As it can be seen from Table 1, the adsorption isotherm of Cr(VI) exhibited Langmuir behaviour, which indicates a monolayer adsorption. The adsorption of Cr(VI) by human hair is well-fitted with both Freundlich and Langmuir models; therefore, the Langmuir–Freundlich equation was also applied to the data sets. Basically the combined equation of Langmuir–Freundlich is known as Sips model. Table 1 also highlights that the Freundlich constant KF and n are 13.62 (mg/g) (L/mg)1/n and 1.134, respectively. Therefore, these values indicate that the adsorption capacity and adsorption intensity both are favourable (Bhaumk et al. 2012). Similarly, the higher value of regression coefficient of Freundlich isotherm suggested the multi-layer adsorption of Cr(VI) onto human hair (Varvala et al. 2016). Almost similar Cr(VI) removal was recorded by Berihum (2017) using coffee husk carbon. The Langmuir–Freundlich equation (Eq. 5) can be expressed in the following way:
Equation (Eq. 6) can be easily linearized as:
Adsorption kinetics for human hair
The adsorption kinetics of Cr(VI) adsorption onto human hair was evaluated by pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion kinetic equations and the constant values depicted in Table 2. From Table 2, it is clear that the experimental data are well-fitted with pseudo-second-order kinetics model with very high correlation coefficient (R2 = 1.00).
On the other hand, pseudo-first-order and intraparticle diffusion model are moderately fitted with the experimental data (Table 2). These results suggest that the adsorption onto the adsorbent at specific temperature was best presented by the pseudo-second-order equation, which is based on the assumption that the rate-limiting step may be the chemisorption (Aksu 2001). Song et al. (2016) reported the same observation for removal of toxic chromium by wheat straw and Euatorium adenophorum. Very recently, Campos et al. (2019) reported that core–shell bimagnetic nanoadsorbents can remove hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions and it followed the pseudo-second-order model.
Thermodynamic study for human hair
The thermodynamic parameters for the obtained equilibrium data on temperature variation by the use of equations (Eqs. 7–9) were evaluated. The equilibrium constant Kc is calculated based of CAe and Ce values:
where CAe indicates adsorption in mg L−1 at equilibrium and Ce is the equilibrium concentration of the metal in mg L−1. The respective values of other thermodynamic parameters such as ∆H° and ∆S° were obtained from the slope and interpret of the plot of log Kc against 1/T (Eq. 8), revealing that the values of free energy (∆G°) at different temperatures are obtained using Eq. 9.
where T is the temperature in Kelvin and R is the gas constant (KJ mol−1 K−1).
The entire results for the thermodynamic parameters are presented in Table 3. From Table 3, it is clear that both ∆H° and ∆S° are positive; the positive value of ∆H° for Cr(VI) removal by human hair confirms that the adsorption process is endothermic in nature and positive ∆S° indicates the adsorption process is spontaneous. However, the spontaneity of chromium adsorption is also supported by the free energy value at different temperatures (Table 3), according to equation (Eq. 9).
Results indicate that there is more negative value of ∆G at higher temperatures. That is the adsorption of Cr(VI) by human hair is favourable at higher temperatures. This is perhaps because the adsorption reaction is absolutely endothermic in nature. Almost similar results were reported by Ekop and Eddy (2010) for removal of Zn2+ and Pb2+ ions from aqueous solution by using human hair.
Regeneration study
In wastewater treatment process, the regeneration of exhausted adsorbent is an extremely important factor (Mohamed et al. 2017). The saturated adsorbent was washed several times with 0.1 (M) NaOH followed by distilled water and dried in shade. Then, activated adsorbent was again used for removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The present results highlighted that about 69% Cr(VI) can be removed by regenerated adsorbent. The current research (Su et al. 2019) demonstrated that exhausted activated carbon with hexavalent chromium can be regenerated by 1 M HCl.
Comparison with other published keratinous substances
Hexavalent chromium adsorption along with other heavy metals by various keratinous substances has been compared with respect to the results of adsorption capacity, and it is presented in Table 4. From Table 4, it is clear that wool showed greater than four times of Cr(VI) adsorption than human hair. The performance of animal hair exhibited higher adsorption capacity of heavy metals than human hair. Table value also revealed that human hair is better performance for lead removal than chromium. Hassan and Davies-McConchie (2012) demonstrated that wool fibre has lower adsorption capacity for arsenic(V).
Conclusion
The present study results revealed that human hair was effective in the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous medium. The efficacy of human hair was tested through batch study with variation of initial concentration, adsorbent dose, contact time pH, and temperature. The equilibrium of Cr(VI) adsorption was nicely fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms with adsorption capacity of 9.852 mg g−1. The pseudo-second-order kinetics is well-fitted with regression coefficient 1.00. Thermodynamic of Cr(VI) adsorption by human hair is endothermic in nature. Finally, it can be concluded that human hair could be an inexpensive material for removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution. Further study can be done towards removal of other metals from aqueous solutions.
References
Aksu Z (2001) Equilibrium and kinetic modeling of Chromium (II) biosorption by C. vulgaris in a batch system temperature: effect of temperature. Sep Purf Technol 21:285–294
Bari RT, Abraham E (2001) Biosorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution by Rhizopus nigricans. Bioresour Technol 79:73–81
Berihum D (2017) Removal of chromium from industrial wastewater by adsorption using coffee husk. J Mater Sci Eng 6:331. https://doi.org/10.4172/2169-0022.1000331
Bhaumik R, Mondal NK (2015) Adsorption of fluoride from aqueous solution by a new low-cost adsorbent: thermally and chemically activated coconut fibre dust. Clean Technol Environ Policy 17:2157–2172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-015-0937-6
Bhaumk R, Mondal N, Das B, Roy P, Pal KC, Das C, Banerjee A, Dutta JK (2012) Eggshell powder as an adsorbent for removal of fluoride from aqueous solution: equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies. Eur J Chem 9(3):1457–1480
Brose DA, James BR (2013) Hexavalent chromium reduction by tartaric acid and isopropyl alcohol in mid-Atlantic soils and the role of Mn(III, IV)(hydr)oxides. Environ Sci Technol 47:12985–12991
Campos AFC, de Oliveira HAL, da Silva FN, da Silva FG, Coppola P, Aquino R, Mezzi A, Depeyrot J (2019) Core–Shell Bimagnetic Nanoadsorbents for Hexavalent Chromium Removal from Aqueous Solutions. J Hazard Mater 362:82–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.09.008
Dakiky M, Khamis M, Manassra A, Mer’eb M (2002) Selective adsorption of chromium VI in industrial wastewater using low-cost abundantly available adsorbents. Adv Environ Res 6:533–540
Dehghani MH, Sanaei D, Ali I, Bhatnagar A (2016) Removal of chromium(VI) from aqueous solution using treated waste newspaper as a low-cost adsorbent: kinetic modeling and isotherm studies. J Mol Liq 215:671–679
Ekop AS, Eddy NO (2010) Thermodynamic study on the adsorption of Pb2+ and Zn2+ from aqueous solution by human hair. Eur J Chem 7(4):1296–1303
Eleftheriou EP, Adamakis IDS, Panteris E, Fatsiou M (2015) Chromium-induced ultrastructural changes and oxidative stress in roots of Arabidopsis thaliana. Int J Mol Sci 16:15852–15871
Feng M, Yin H, Peng H, Liu Z, Lu G, Dang Z (2017) Hexavalent chromium induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in Pycnoporus sanguineus. Environ Pollut 228:128–139
Gu YL, Xu WH, Liu YG, Zeng GM, Huang JH, Tan XF, Jian H, Hu X, Li F, Wang DF (2015) Mechanism of Cr(VI) reduction by Aspergillus niger: enzymatic characteristic, oxidative stress response, and reduction product. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22:6271–6279
Gupta VK, Shrivastava AK, Jain N (2001) Biosorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions by green algae Spirogyra sp. Water Resour 35:4079–4085
Hassan MM, Davies-McConchie JF (2012) Removal of arsenic and heavy metals from potable water by bauxsol immobilized onto wool fibers. Ind Eng Chem Res 51:9634–9641
Hsu NH, Wang SL, Lin YC, Sheng GD, Lee JF (2009) Reduction of Cr(VI) by crop-residue-derived black carbon. Environ Sci Technol 43:8801–8806
Hua C, Zhang R, Bai F, Lu P, Liang X (2016) Removal of chromium(VI) from aqueous solutions using quarnized chitosan microspheres. Chin J Chem Eng 25(2):153–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2016.08.024
Ingole NW, Vinchurkar SS, Dharpal SV (2014) Adsorption of oil from waste water by using human hair. J Environ Sci Comput Sci Eng Technol 3(1):207–2017
Kazakis N, Kantiranis N, Kalaitzidou K, Kaprara M, Mitrakas M, Frei R, Vargemezis G, Tsourlos P, Zouboulis A, Filippidis A (2017) Origin of hexavalent chromium in groundwater: the example of Sarigkiol Basin, Northern Greece. Sci Total Environ 593–594:552–566
Khambhaty Y, Mody K, Basw S, Jha B (2009) Biosorption of Cr(VI) onto marine Aspergillus iger: experimental studies and pseudo-second order kinetics. World J Microb Biotechnol 25:1413–1421
Khan AA, Muthukrishnan M, Guha BK (2010) Sorption and transport modeling of hexavalent chromium on soil media. J Hazard Mater 174(1–3):444–454
Khulbe KC, Matsuura T (2018) Removal of heavy metals and pollutants by membrane adsorption techniques. Appl Water Sci 8:19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-018-0661-6
Liu X, Shen F, Qi X (2019) Adsorption recovery of phosphate from aqueous solution by CaO-biochar composites prepared from eggshell and rice straw. Sci Total Environ 666:694–702
Mahdavian L (2012) Effects of magnetic field, pH and retention time on the lead (Pb2+) adsorption by modified human hair, goat hair and sheep wool. Afr J Microbiol Res 6(1):183–189
Mahdavian L (2014) Simulation of heavy metal removal by α-keratin Nano-structure of Human hair from environment. J Environ Treat Technol 2(2):31–35
Manjuladevi M, Anitha R, Manonmani S (2018) Kinetic study on adsorption of Cr(VI), Ni(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions from aqueous solutions using activated carbon prepared from Cucumismelo peel. Appl Water Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-018-0674-1
McNeil S (2001) Heavy metal removal using wool filters. Asian Textila J. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.5059.6480
Meng X, Zhang G, Li N (2017) Bi24Ga2039 for visible light photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI): controlled synthesis, facet-dependent activity and DFT study. Chem Eng J 314:249–256
Mohamed A, Nasser WS, Osman TA, Topark MS, Muhammed M, Uheida A (2017) Removal of chromium(VI) from aqueous solutions using modified composite nanofibers. J Collod Interface Sci. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2017.06.066
Mohan D, Singh KP, Singh VK (2005) Removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution using low-cost activated carbons derived from agricultural waste materials and activated carbon fabric cloth. Ind Eng Chem 44:1027–1042
Nethaji S, Sivasamy A (2014) Removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution using activated carbon prepared from walnut shell biomass through alkali impregnation processes. Clean Technol Environ Policy 16:361–368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-013-0619-1
Park D, Yun YS, Park JM (2005a) Use of dead fungal biomass for the detoxification of hexavalent chromium : screening and kinetics. Process Biochem 40:2559–2565
Park D, Yun YS, Park JM (2005b) Use of dead fungal biomass for the detoxification of hexavalent Chromium : screening and kinetics. Process Biochem 40:2559–2565
Rajapaksha AU, Alam MdS, Chen N, Alessi DS, Igalavithana AD, Tsang DCW, Ok YS (2018) Removal of hexavalent chromium in aqueous solutions using biochar: chemical and spectroscopic investigations. Sci Total Environ 625:1567–1573
Saha R, Mukherjee K, Saha I, Ghosh A, Ghosh SK, Saha B (2013) Removal of hexavalent chromium from water by adsorption on mosambi (Citrus limetta) peel. Res Chem Intermed 3:2245–2257
Song D, Pan K, Tariq A, Azizullah A, Sun F, Li Z et al (2016) Adsorptive removal of toxic chromium from waste-water using wheat straw and Eupatorium adenophorumm. PLoS ONE 11(12):e01670737. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal
Su M, Fang Y, Li B, Yin W, Gu J, Liang H, Li P, Wu J (2019) Enhanced hexavalent chromium removal by activated carbon modified with micro-sized goethite using a facile impregnation method. Sci Total Environ 647:47–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.372
Tan TC, Chia CK, Teo CK (1985) Uptake of metal ions by chemically treated human hair. Water Res 19(2):157–162
Tewari N, Vasudevan P, Guha BK (2005) Study on biosorption of Cr(VI) by Mucor hiemalis. Biochem Eng J 23:185–192
Varvala S, Kumari A, Dharanija B, Bhargava SK, Parthasarathy R (2016) Removal of thorium (IV) from aqueous solutions by deoiled karanja seed cake: optimization using Taguchi method, equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies. J Environ Chem Eng 4:405–417
Wang XS, Tmg YP, Tao SR (2008) Removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions by the nonliving biomass of Alligator Weed : kinetics and equilibrium. Adsorption 14:823–830
Zhang J, Yin H, Chen L, Liu F, Chen H (2017) The role of different functional groups in a novel adsorption complexation-reduction multi-step kinetic model for hexavalent chromium retention by undissolved humic acid. Environ Pollut. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.10.1200269-7491
Zhang H, Carrillo F, Lopez-Mesas M, Palet C (2018) Volarization of keratin biofibers for removing heavy metals from aqueous solutions. Text Res J. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040517518764008
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by authors’ own laboratory expenses, and the entire work was performed in the form of MSc dissertation in the year 2016–2017. Authors express their sincere thanks to all the faculty members of both Environmental Science and Biotechnology Departments, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan for their academic help. Authors also wish to extend their heartfelt thanks to all the officials including technical staff of University Science Instrumentation, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, for their active help during sample analysing, specially scanning electron micrograph study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Mondal, N.K., Basu, S. Potentiality of waste human hair towards removal of chromium(VI) from solution: kinetic and equilibrium studies. Appl Water Sci 9, 49 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-019-0929-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-019-0929-5