Abstract: In the present study, grass carp scales were used to remove hydroquinone aqueous solutions under different experimental conditions. The effects of pH, adsorbent dose, adsorption time, adsorption temperature and initial hydroquinone concentration on adsorption efficiency were systematically investigated to explore the optimal conditions for the removal of hydroquinone. Meanwhile, its adsorption mechanism was also elucidated. The results showed that the adsorbent grass scrap scales revealed good adsorption capacity towards hydroquinone and the optimal adsorption conditions were pH 7, 25 ℃ adsorption temperature, 0.5 g/L adsorbent dose, 100 mg/L initial hydroquinone concentration and 8 h adsorption time. Under the optimal adsorption conditions, the adsorption amount of hydroquinone was 76.71 mg/g. Further, kinetic and thermodynamic analyses indicated that the adsorption of hydroquinonegrass carp scales was mostly a physical adsorption process, which was a multilayer adsorption and fitted well with a pseudo-secondkinetic model. Moreover, the Freundlich isotherm model could well describe the isothermal adsorption of hydroquinone onto grass carp scales.

Key words: grass carp scales, hydroquinone, adsorption, kinetics, thermodynamics