Preparation of quaternary amine-grafted organosolv lignin biosorbent and its application in the treatment of hexavalent chromium polluted water.

A novel cationic biosorbent was synthesized by grafting organosolv lignin with GT (also named (2-hydrazinyl-2-oxoethyl)-trimethylazanium chloride, abbreviated as GT) and formaldehyde in an aqueous solution by an eco-friendly way (named QA-g-OL). QA-g-OL was employed as biosorbent to remediate hexavalent chromium polluted water. Research found Cr(VI) removal is a pH-dependence process. It was also found that part of the Cr(VI) was reduced to Cr(III) during the process of adsorption in the range of pH was 2.0 to 7.0. Furthermore, QA-g-OL possess strong absorbability for Cr (VI) in a broad concentration range (from 10 to 100 mg/L). The removal efficiencies of Cr (VI) were 93.40%, 96.70%, 98.78% and 97.84% when initial concentration was 10, 20, 50, 80 and 100 mg/L under optimum pH, respectively. On the other side, the adsorption process exhibited swift equilibrium characteristics, the adsorption equilibrium can be achieved within 10 min. The mechanism of hexavalent chromium removed by QA-g-OL were also discussed, results can be benefit for the application of biomass-based adsorbents in the treatment of hexavalent chromium polluted wastewater.