Textile Waste as a Resource: Investigating Dyed and Undyed Cotton for Heavy Metal Adsorption from Contaminated Water
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38032/scse.2025.3.42Keywords:
Textile fiber, Chemical modification, Heavy metal, Adsorption, Biosorption mechanismAbstract
The escalating demand for textile fibers has led to an equally rapid rise in textile waste (Dyed and undyed cotton), creating significant environmental and health challenges. Novel approaches are being investigated to lessen these negative consequences and encourage sustainability, such as turning textile waste into adsorbents for water filtration. Reduction of water pollution and effective handling of waste management are the pivotal concerns for environmental sustainability in our country. Heavy metal removal from the contaminated water is one of the key factors to be followed in water purification. The prospect of textile waste-cotton in particular-as an efficient adsorbent for removing heavy metals from contaminated water sources is explored in this article. The principal aims of this study are to appraise the capabilities of adsorbents obtained from textile waste, scrutinize the efficacy of diverse chemical changes, and appraise the regenerability and reusability of such materials. This review article investigates the synthesis and application of chemically modified cotton fibers in water treatment processes. The effects of significant chemical modification processes on adsorption efficiency such as carboxymethylation, sulfonation, and carbon activation are discussed. Moreover, this study focuses on the adsorption methods that increase cottons ability to bind heavy metals, such as ionic liquid CBA exchange and chitosan cotton base adsorbents (CBA). The findings reveal that textile waste that has undergone chemical modification demonstrates noteworthy adsorption abilities for different heavy metals like lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As). Certain alterations result show the improvements of up to 90% removal efficiency. More research is needed to address issues including long-term stability across several regeneration cycles, environmental concerns from chemically modified adsorbents, and economical scalability to commercial uses. Future research could focus on sustainable strategies like enzymatic regeneration and green chemical changes.
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