Synergistic Effect of Chitosan and Metal Oxide Additives on Improving the Organic and Biofouling Resistance of Polyethersulfone Ultrafiltration Membranes

A scientometric analysis and recent advances of emerging chitosan-based biomaterials as potential catalyst for biodiesel production: A review

Chitosan is a widely available polymer with a reasonably high abundance, as well as a sustainable, biodegradable, and biocompatible material with different functional groups that are used in a wide range of operations. Chitosan is frequently employed in widespread applications such as environmental remediation, adsorption, catalysts, and drug formulation. The goal of this review is to discuss the potential applications of chitosan and its chemically modified solids as a catalyst in biodiesel production. The existing manuscripts are integrated based on the nature of materials used as chitosan and its modifications. A short overview of chitosan's structural characteristics, properties, and some ideal methods to be considered in catalysis activities are addressed. This article includes an analysis of a chitosan-based scientometric conducted between 1975 and 2023 using VOS viewer 1.6.19. To identify developments and technological advances in chitosan research, the significant scientometric features of yearly publication results, documents country network, co-authorship network, documents funding sponsor, documents institution network, and documents category in domain analysis were examined. This review covers a variety of organic transformations and their effects, including chitosan reactions against acids, bases, metals, metal oxides, organic compounds, lipases, and Knoevenagel condensation. The catalytic capabilities of chitosan and its modified structures for producing biodiesel through transesterification reactions are explored in depth.

Fabrication and Investigation of Acid Functionalized CNT Blended Nanocomposite Hollow Fiber Membrane for High Filtration and Antifouling Performance in Ultrafiltration Process

In this study, we fabricated a nanocomposite polyethersulfone (PES) HF membrane by blending acid functionalized carbon nanotubes (FCNT) to address the issue of reduced membrane life, increased energy consumption, and operating costs due to low permeability and membrane fouling in the ultrafiltration process. Additionally, we investigated the effect of FCNT blending on the membrane in terms of the physicochemical properties of the membrane and the filtration and antifouling performance. The FCNT/PES nanocomposite HF membrane exhibited increased water permeance from 110.1 to 194.3 LMH/bar without sacrificing rejection performance and increased the flux recovery ratio from 89.0 to 95.4%, compared to a pristine PES HF membrane. This study successfully developed a high filtration and antifouling polymer-based HF membrane by blending FCNT. Furthermore, it was validated that blending FCNT into the membrane enhances the filtration and antifouling performance in the ultrafiltration process.