Development of Functional Hybrid Polymers and Gel Materials for Sustainable Membrane-Based Water Treatment Technology: How to Combine Greener and Cleaner Approaches

Abstract

Water quality and disposability are among the main challenges that governments and societies will outside during the next years due to their close relationship to population growth and urbanization and their direct influence on the environment and socio-economic development. Potable water suitable for human consumption is a key resource that, unfortunately, is strongly limited by anthropogenic pollution and climate change. In this regard, new groups of compounds, referred to as emerging contaminants, represent a risk to human health and living species; they have already been identified in water bodies as a result of increased industrialization. Pesticides, cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, organic dyes, and other man-made chemicals indispensable for modern society are among the emerging pollutants of difficult remediation by traditional methods of wastewater treatment. However, the majority of the currently used waste management and remediation techniques require significant amounts of energy and chemicals, which can themselves be sources of secondary pollution. Therefore, this review reported newly advanced, efficient, and sustainable techniques and approaches for water purification. In particular, new advancements in sustainable membrane-based filtration technologies are discussed, together with their modification through a rational safe-by-design to modulate their hydrophilicity, porosity, surface characteristics, and adsorption performances. Thus, their preparation by the use of biopolymer-based gels is described, as well as their blending with functional cross-linkers or nanofillers or by advanced and innovative approaches, such as electrospinning.

The Investigation of the Production of Salt-Added Polyethylene Oxide/Chitosan Nanofibers

“…Chitosan (chitosan) is currently receiving a great deal of interest not only in medical and pharmaceutical application but also as a promising candidate for use as an absorbent system for various common and emerging pollutants such as heavy metals, anionic organic dyes, and anti-inflammatory drugs [ 1 , 2 ]. In recent studies, considerable attention has been directed towards polymer nanoparticles as a vehicle for drug administration.…”

“…Nanofiber mats can serve as media, allowing the penetration of substances such as air or gases, UV light, water, various liquids, and more. Understanding and evaluating these morphological features are crucial in comprehending the performance and potential applications of these nanofibers [ 1 , 2 , 25 ].…”

Sustainable Secondary-Raw Materials, Natural Substances and Eco-Friendly Nanomaterial-Based Approaches for Improved Surface Performances: An Overview of What They Are and How They Work

“…To obtain the good dispersion of HNTs into polymeric blends, the HNTs must be functionalized. The inclusion of HNTs enhanced the mechanical, thermal, and flammability qualities of the functionalized surfaces and materials [ 115 , 116 ].…”

Smart pillar[5]arene‐based PDMAEMA/PES beads for selective dye pollutants removal: design, synthesis, chemical‐physical characterization, and adsorption kinetic studies

“…Unfortunately, until now conventional methods of (waste)water treatment still lack in the removal of the so-called "emerging contaminants" (such as organic dyes) that are nowadays widely used in textiles, leather, paper, plastic and cosmetic industries. [1,2] As a matter of fact, they represent a worrying threat to the human health for their chemical persistence and toxicity; for this reason new advanced techniques for (waste)water remediation are currently under investigation and settlement. [3][4][5] In this contest, thanks to its excellent mechanical properties, as well as thermal and chemical stability, [6] polyethersulfone (hereafter PES) is widely used as an embedding polymer for the fabrication of nano-and ultrafiltration membranes for water purification.…”