ABSTRACT Decontamination of Toxic Metals from Wastewater using Smart Biomaterials Kshitij Gupta 3rd B.

tech Paint Technology kshitijhbti@gmail.com Contact No. 7499588468 Lipika Mittal 3rd B.tech Electrical Engineering lipikamittal93@gmail.com 9457672461

The dissolved metals (particularly heavy metals) escaping into the environment pose a serious health hazard and are major toxic pollutant of water. Heavy metal pollution in the aquatic system has become a serious threat today and of great environmental concern as they are non-biodegradable. They accumulate in living tissues throughout the food chain, which has humans at its top, multiplying the danger. The removal of heavy metals from water at point of use, entry, and for cowater system is generally accomplished by conventional methods such as electrochemical processes, membrane processes, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis. But these practices are inadequate while often creating secondary problems with metal-bearing sludges, which are extremely diffi cult to dispose. While wastewater treatment by ion exchange resins is both effective and convenient, they are still too expensive to be used by the developing countries. Hence the need of the hour is an effective, efficient and economically feasible wastewater treatment strategy. This paper puts forth one such strategy of decontamination of toxic metals from wastewater with use of biomaterials while undergoing process of biosorption Various metal-binding mechanisms have been postulated to be active in biosorption process and presented in the paper. Efforts have been made to use different forms of inexpensive plant materials for the removal of toxic metals from the aqueous media. Increase of carboxyl ligands which bind better with metal has been achieved through succination, acetylation, and graft copolymerization of the biomaterial. All the modified biomaterials have been assessed for the sorption efficiency of cationic metals under previously standardized optimum conditions. Results of experiments done to enhance thermal stability of biomaterials have been included as well. Overall biosorption promises to fulfill the requirements, which are competitive, effective, and economically viable.