Saini Amardeep Singh, Melo Jose Savio
Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai 400 085, India.
J Environ Radioact. 2015 Apr;142:29-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2015.01.006. Epub 2015 Jan 24.
Naturally available low cost materials have gained importance as effective alternative to conventional sorbents for the removal of metal ions from water. The present study describes the use of black hair waste as a sorbent for the removal of uranium ions from an aqueous medium. Alkali treatment of the biomass resulted in a significant increase in its uptake capacity. The optimum pH and contact time for uranium removal were 4.5 and 2 h respectively. It was observed that the experimental data fits well in Ho's pseudo-second order kinetic model. Binding of uranium to the biomass was confirmed using FT-IR spectroscopy. Thus, the present study could demonstrate the utility of human black hair to remove uranium from aqueous medium.
