Water Filtration Membranes Based on Non-Woven Cellulose Fabrics: Effect of Nanopolysaccharide Coatings on Selective Particle Rejection, Antifouling, and Antibacterial Properties.

This article presents a comparative study of the surface characteristics and water purification performance of commercially available cellulose nonwoven fabrics modified, via cast coating, with different nano-dimensioned bio-based carbohydrate polymers, viz. cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (T-CNF), and chitin nanocrystals (ChNC). The surface-modified nonwoven fabrics showed an improvement in wettability, surface charge modification, and a slight decrease of maximum pore size.

Charged ultrafiltration membranes based on TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibrils/poly(vinyl alcohol) antifouling coating.

This study reports the potential of TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibrils (T-CNF)/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) coatings to develop functionalized membranes in the ultrafiltration regime with outstanding antifouling performance and dimensional/pH stability. PVA acts as an anchoring phase interacting with the polyethersulfone (PES) substrate and stabilizing for the hygroscopic T-CNF crosslinking. The T-CNF/PVA coated PES membranes showed a nano-textured surface, a change in the surface charge, and improved mechanical properties compared to the original PES substrate.

Bio-based Micro-/Meso-/Macroporous Hybrid Foams with Ultrahigh Zeolite Loadings for Selective Capture of Carbon Dioxide.

Microporous (<2 nm) crystalline aluminosilicates in the form of zeolites offer a great potential as efficient adsorbents for atmospheric CO in the eminent battle against global warming and climate change. The processability of conventional zeolite powders is, however, poor, which limits their implementation in many applications, such as in gas filtration industrial systems. In this work, we overcome this issue through the preparation of hybrid foams using mesoporous/macroporous supporting materials based on the strong network properties of gelatin/nanocellulose, which can support ultrahigh loadings of silicalite-1, used as a model sorbent nanomaterial.