Articolo in rivista, 2023, ENG, 10.3390/gels9010009

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

Rando, Giulia; Sfameni, Silvia; Plutino, Maria Rosaria

Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Analytical Sciences (ChiBioFarAm), University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials, ISMN--CNR, Palermo, c/o Department of ChiBioFarAm, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy Department of Engineering, University of Messina, Contrada di Dio, S. Agata, 98166 Messina, Italy

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.

GELS 9 (1), pp. 9–?

Keywords

advanced materials, electrospun nanofibers, mixed-matrix membranes, nano-hybrid gels, wastewater treatment, water remediation

CNR authors

Rando Giulia, Plutino Maria Rosaria, Sfameni Silvia

CNR institutes

ISMN – Istituto per lo studio dei materiali nanostrutturati

ID: 491230

Year: 2023

Type: Articolo in rivista

Creation: 2024-01-08 15:47:54.000

Last update: 2024-01-08 15:54:05.000

External IDs

CNR OAI-PMH: oai:it.cnr:prodotti:491230

DOI: 10.3390/gels9010009

Scopus: 2-s2.0-85146642637