Significant increase of the adsorption ability of the eggshell biomaterial toward cadmium was observed upon milling, as is evidenced by the value of maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 329 mg g(-1), which is markedly higher than in the case of most "green" sorbents. The main driving force of the adsorption was proven to be the presence of aragonite phase as a consequence of phase transformation from calcite occurring during milling. Cadmium is adsorbed in a non-reversible way, as documented by different techniques (desorption tests, XRD and EDX measurements). The optimum pH for cadmium adsorption was 7. The adsorption process was accompanied by the increase of the value of specific surface area. The course of adsorption has been described by Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms. The adsorption kinetics was evaluated using three models, among which the best correlation coefficients and the best normalized standard deviation values were achieved for the pseudo-second order model and the intraparticle diffusion model, respectively. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.