Application of Lignin and Its Derivatives in Adsorption of Heavy Metal Ions in Water: A Review
Abstract
Water pollution by heavy metal ions is currently of great concern due to their high toxicity and carcinogenicity. In recent years, great efforts have been devoted to the search for new cost-effective adsorbents derived from biomass. Lignin is a natural amorphous polymer that has great potential for use as a building block in the production of biorenewable materials. Due to its unique polyphenol structure, physicochemical properties, and abundance, a wide variety of sorbents, particularly heavy metal ion sorbents, can be potentially obtained from lignin. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature about different feedstock lignin and versatile lignin derivatives used as heavy metal ion adsorbents. The adsorption capability improvement mechanism of the lignin derivatives and the comparison with commercial resins are also discussed. Therefore, this review aims to discuss the different modification categories that have been reported for the conversion of lignins into advanced heavy metal ion adsorbents. Most importantly, adsorbents derived from lignin can confer high environmental benefits due to its stability, biocompatibility and abundance in the plant kingdom. This review may pave the way for the design and fabrication of new lignin-based adsorbents with enhanced adsorbent performance for heavy metal ions in water.
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Biomass carbon derived from natural materials possesses intricate components that may produce diverse surface functional groups and exhibit particular performance.
“However, biomass carbon derived from natural materials possesses intricate components that may produce diverse surface functional groups and exhibit particular performance [26–28].”
From Molybdenum disulfide supported on chitin carbon aerogels as an efficient and stable hydrogen evolution electrocatalyst (2025) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Ge, Y., & Li, Z.
- Affiliations
- Guangxi University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Zhili
- Venue
- ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2018-03-29
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 7181-7192
- ISSN
- 2168-0485 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2795125132
- Cited by
- 553
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 73 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 93 · 2020: 76 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 12
- FWCI
- 3.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (2016GXNSFAA380329, 2016GXNSFGA380003, 2015GXNSFBA139215)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (21464002, 21264002, 21707022)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Adsorption and biosorption for pollutant removal
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Lignin and Wood Chemistry
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Coagulation and Flocculation Studies
- Keywords
- lignin, lignin derivatives, heavy metal adsorption, water pollution, biomass-derived adsorbents, lignin modification, polyphenols, adsorption mechanism, low-cost adsorbent
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