Nanocellulose: Recent advances and its prospects in environmental remediation

Abstract

Among many other sustainable functional nanomaterials, nanocellulose is drawing increasing interest for use in environmental remediation technologies due to its numerous unique properties and functionalities. Nanocellulose is usually derived from the disintegration of naturally occurring polymers or produced by the action of bacteria. In this review, some invigorating perspectives on the challenges, future direction, and updates on the most relevant uses of nanocellulose in environmental remediation are discussed. The reported applications and properties of nanocellulose as an adsorbent, photocatalyst, flocculant, and membrane are reviewed in particular. However, additional effort will be required to implement and commercialize nanocellulose as a viable nanomaterial for remediation technologies. In this regard, the main challenges and limitations in working with nanocellulose-based materials are identified in an effort to improve the development and efficient use of nanocellulose in environmental remediation.

Nanoarchitectonics: bottom-up creation of functional materials and systems

“…Given the significant and time-critical problems of energy shortage, environmental protection, and biomedical issues, the creation of new functional materials and systems for efficient energy production and storage [1,2], environmental remediation with sensitive pollutant detection [3,4], and biological and biomedical applications [5,6] is a crucial matter. In addition to the intrinsic functionality of bulk materials, control of their internal structure on the nanometer-scale is realized to be increasingly important to obtain high efficiency and specificity in their functions.…”

Nanocellulose-based polymer hybrids and their emerging applications in biomedical engineering and water purification

“…This improvement in the adsorbent potential of nanocellulose is due to the presence of functional groups, increased surface area, and crystalline nature. 161 In addition, nanocellulose is thermodynamically stable as compared to metallic nanoparticles, which make them a suitable material for this application. [162][163][164] The processing of nanocellulose-based membranes for optimal access to functional sites, with high ux and mechanical stability, is a challenging task in water purication.…”

Vegetable Additives in Food Packaging Polymeric Materials

“…Regarding the nanocellulose, there some particularities compared with other artificial nanoparticles: In the case of carbon nanoparticles or nanoclays, the mechanical constraining of polymer chains [99], and surface/polymer interaction (with formation of layer of perturbed macromolecules around nanoparticles [100]) are supposed to be responsible for the beneficial effect of nanoparticles on the mechanical properties. In the case of nanocellulose, different mechanisms allow the nanocellulose to influence and enhance the polymer properties [101], i.e., the formation of a network of long nanoscale fibers [101]; the interaction between nanoparticles/nanofibrils, which is controlled not only by Van der Waals forces but also by strong hydrogen bonds [102,103]; and also the adhesion to the polymer matrix, which is dominated by hydrogen bonding [104,105]. Different to carbon nanoparticles, nanocellulose fibrils do not form clusters but percolation networks [106], which have a positive effect on the strength of the composites [107].…”