Abstract

Background: Synthesis and modification of cost-effective sorbents for removing heavy metals from water resources is an area of significance. It had been reported that materials with biological origins, such as agricultural and animal waste, are excellent alternatives to conventional adsorbents due to their higher affinity, capacity and selectivity towards metal ions. These properties of biomaterials help to reduce or detoxify metal ions concentration in contaminated water to acceptable regulatory standards.

Objective: Synthesis of novel, efficient, cost effective, eco-friendly biomaterials for heavy metal adsorption from water is still an area of challenge.

Method: In this comprehensive review, acompilation of patents as well as published articles is carried out to outline the properties of different biomaterials based on their precursors along withdetailed description of biomaterial morphology and various surface modification approaches.

Results: A detailed study of the performance of adsorbents and the role of physical and chemical modification in terms of enhancing their potential for metal adsorption from water is compiled here. The factors affecting adsorption behavior i.e., capacity and affinity of e biomaterials is also compiled.

Conclusion: This paper presents a concise review of reported studies on the synthesis and modification of biomaterials, their use for heavy metal removal from waters and future prospects of this technology.

Keywords: Adsorption, cost effective, heavy metal, metal ions, surface modification, synthesis.

Graphical Abstract