23-09-2025
The Department of Chemistry of NOVA FCT took part in the project “Use of Human Hair in the Adsorption of Dyes from Polluted Waters”, presented at the European competition EUCYS – EU Contest for Young Scientists.
The project was developed by Madalena Silva and Neuza Rodrigues, students from Escola Secundária de Azambuja, under the supervision of Professor Margarida Soares. It was one of only two Portuguese projects, among around one hundred, selected to represent Portugal in the European final.
The young scientists explored the use of human hair obtained from hair salons as an adsorbent material, assessing its capacity to remove dyes (using Methylene Blue as a model compound) from aqueous solutions. Different parameters were tested, and the results were analyzed based on adsorption models, namely Langmuir and Freundlich. The outcomes showed removal efficiencies of around 90% in just 30 minutes, demonstrating that hair can be a promising adsorbent for dyes in industrial effluents.
The Department of Chemistry of NOVA FCT supported the project throughout all stages of development, contributing to its success in the national competition and to its presentation in the European final.
In this edition, Portugal achieved second place with the project “Observational Constraints on Vector-like Dark Energy”, developed by Carolina Coelho, a student at Escola Básica e Secundária Carolina Michaëlis in Porto. A total of 85 projects and 150 young scientists from more than 40 countries took part in the competition.
