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Polymers for Environmental Remediation and Catalysis

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 5422

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Loredana Maiuolo

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci, Cubo 12C, 87036 Rende, Italy
Interests: green chemistry; homogeneous catalysis; lanthanide Lewis acid catalysis; nonconventional reaction media; organic synthesis; asymmetric synthesis; MW-assisted chemistry
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Dr. Paola Costanzo

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, University of Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata, Italy
Interests: green chemistry; MW-assisted reactions; biorenewable feedstocks; organic-synthesis; green solvents
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The effects of climate change are becoming more evident every day. Intensive development and human activities have produced high levels of waste in air, water, and land. Although new strategies have been developed to challenge these problems, many efforts need to be made in pollutant removal. Polymers, both natural and synthetic, are versatile substances that alone or in composite materials could be useful for environmental remediation.

This Special Issue welcomes reviews and original research papers on the development of polymeric materials useful in water, air, and land treatment, with special interest in eco-friendly processes for the synthesis of new synthetic materials as well as the chemical modification of natural ones. In particular, topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the design of (1) adsorbent systems for organic and inorganic pollutants, (2) heterogeneous catalysts for advanced oxidation/reduction processes, and (3) membrane filtration films.

Dr. Loredana Maiuolo
Dr. Paola Costanzo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

wastewater
pollutants
composite materials
biomaterials
adsorption capacity, recovery
oxidation
reduction

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 4291 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Adsorption of Methyl Orange from Water Using Chitosan Bead-like Materials

by Haya Alyasi, Hamish Mackey and Gordon McKay

Molecules 2023, 28(18), 6561; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules28186561 - 11 Sep 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1393

Abstract

Natural product waste treatment and the removal of harmful dyes from water by adsorption are two of the crucial environmental issues at present. Traditional adsorbents are often not capable in removing detrimental dyes from wastewater due to their hydrophilic nature and because they form strong bonds with water molecules, and therefore they remain in the dissolved state in water. Consequently, new and effective sorbents are required to reduce the cost of wastewater treatment as well as to mitigate the health problems caused by water pollution contaminants. In this study, the adsorption behaviour of methyl orange, MO, dye on chitosan bead-like materials was investigated as a function of shaking time, contact time, adsorbent dosage, initial MO concentration, temperature and solution pH. The structural and chemical properties of chitosan bead-like materials were studied using several techniques including SEM, BET, XRD and FTIR. The adsorption process of methyl orange by chitosan bead materials was well described by the Langmuir isotherm model for the uptake capacity and followed by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model to describe the rate processes. Under the optimal conditions, the maximum removal rate (98.9%) and adsorption capacity (12.46 mg/g) of chitosan bead-like materials were higher than those of other previous reports; their removal rate for methyl orange was still up to 87.2% after three regenerative cycles. Hence, this chitosan bead-like materials are very promising materials for wastewater treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymers for Environmental Remediation and Catalysis)

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11 pages, 10589 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A More Sustainable Isocyanide Synthesis from N-Substituted Formamides Using Phosphorus Oxychloride in the Presence of Triethylamine as Solvent

by Sodeeq Aderotimi Salami, Xavier Siwe-Noundou and Rui Werner Maçedo Krause

Molecules 2022, 27(20), 6850; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27206850 - 13 Oct 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1827

Abstract

A simple, green, and highly efficient protocol for the synthesis of isocyanides is described. The reaction involves dehydration of formamides with phosphorus oxychloride in the presence of triethylamine as solvent at 0 °C. The product isocyanides were obtained in high to excellent yields in less than 5 min. The method offers several advantages including increased synthesis speed, relatively mild conditions, and rapid access to large numbers of functionalized isocyanides, excellent purity, increased safety, and minimal reaction waste. The new approach of synthesising dehydrative isocyanides from formamides is significantly more environmentally-friendly than prior methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymers for Environmental Remediation and Catalysis)

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Review

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40 pages, 8153 KiB

Open AccessReview

Hybrid Polymer-Silica Nanostructured Materials for Environmental Remediation

by Antonio Grisolia, Gianluca Dell’Olio, Angelica Spadafora, Marzia De Santo, Catia Morelli, Antonella Leggio and Luigi Pasqua

Molecules 2023, 28(13), 5105; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules28135105 - 29 Jun 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1716

Abstract

Due to the ever-growing global population, it is necessary to develop highly effective processes that minimize the impact of human activities and consumption on the environment. The levels of organic and inorganic contaminants have rapidly increased in recent years, posing a threat to ecosystems. Removing these toxic pollutants from the environment is a challenging task that requires physical, chemical, and biological methods. An effective solution involves the use of novel engineered materials, such as silica-based nanostructured materials, which exhibit a high removal capacity for various pollutants. The starting materials are also thermally and mechanically stable, allowing for easy design and development at the nanoscale through versatile functionalization procedures, enabling their effective use in pollutant capture. However, improvements concerning mechanical properties or applicability for repeated cycles may be required to refine their structural features. This review focuses on hybrid/composite polymer-silica nanostructured materials. The state of the art in nanomaterial synthesis, different techniques of functionalization, and polymer grafting are described. Furthermore, it explores the application of polymer-modified nanostructured materials for the capture of heavy metals, dyes, hydrocarbons and petroleum derivatives, drugs, and other organic compounds. The paper concludes by offering recommendations for future research aimed at advancing the application of polymer-silica nanostructured materials in the efficiency of pollutant uptake. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymers for Environmental Remediation and Catalysis)

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