Use of modified wheat bran for the removal of chromium(VI) from aqueous solutions

•Modification of wheat bran with tartaric acid M-WB was realized.•The number of functional groups on the increased with modification.•Modified M-WB is an efficient adsorbent for eliminating Cr(VI) from aqueous solution.•The sorptionyield reached maximum value as 90% at pH 2.2 for Cr(VI) ions.•The sorption capacity of (M-WB) was 5.28mg/g. Novel adsorbents, wheat bran (WB) and modified wheat bran (M-WB) with tartaric acid were developed and Cr(VI) adsorption was investigated by changing various parameters. The adsorption increased with contact time and become optimum at 180min for WB and 200min for M-WB. When the pH of the solution phase increased, some of toxic Cr(VI) reduced into less toxic Cr(III) on the WB surface. The maximum removal of Cr(VI) from the solution having an initial Cr(VI) concentration of 200mgL−1 was obtained at pH 2.0 as 51.0% and 90.0% for WB and M-WB, respectively. Isotherm data of Cr(VI) adsorption on WB and M-WB was described by the Freundlich adsorption model. The adsorption capacity of 4.53mg of Cr(VI)/g for WB and 5.28mg of Cr(VI)/g for M-WB was obtained at pH 2 and 2.2 respectively.