Biosorption of zinc ion: a deep comprehension

Massive industrialization and urbanization of civilization during the last few decades have made a thrust in heavy metal pollution in various water bodies. In past, various kinds of conventional metal ion remediation technologies, such as cementation, osmosis, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, etc., have been practised. However, most of these technologies are quite expensive, and lead to the generation of secondary chemical sludge. However, biosorption of heavy metal ions is significantly inexpensive and an eco-friendly technology. Among the series of heavy metals, zinc has gained the significant interest due to its toxicity and easy availability in water bodies. Biosorption of zinc in liquid phase by living, nonliving, conventional and non-conventional biosorbents has been practised extensively in the past. This literature review focuses on the recent trends practised in the field of biosorption of zinc from liquid phase. The present work provides deep insight into various aspects of biosorption of zinc by different mechanisms of biosorption, bioaccumulation, isotherm, kinetic and mechanistic modeling. An exhaustive comparison among different sorts of biomasses has also been given in the present work to enlist all the milestones of biosorption.