Novel Polycarboxylated Starch-Based Sorbents for Cu2+ Ions

Starch-based hydrogels for environmental applications: A review

Water sources have become extremely scarce and contaminated by organic and inorganic industrial and agricultural pollutants as well as household wastes. Poisoning water resources by dyes and metals is a problem because contaminated water can leak into subsurface and surface sources, causing serious contamination and health problems. Therefore, developing wastewater treatment technologies is valuable. Today, hydrogels have attracted considerable attention owing to their broad applications. Hydrogels are polymeric network compositions with significant water-imbibing capacity. Hydrogels have potential applications in diverse fields such as biomedical, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and biosensors. They can be prepared by using natural (biopolymers) and synthetic polymers. Synthetic polymer-based hydrogels obtained from petrochemicals are not environmentally benign; thus, abundant plant-based polysaccharides are found as more suitable compounds for making biodegradable hydrogels. Polysaccharides with many advantages such as non-toxicity, biodegradability, availability, inexpensiveness, etc. are widely employed for the preparation of environmentally friendly hydrogels. Polysaccharides-based hydrogels containing chitin, chitosan, gum, starch (St), etc. are employed to remove pollutants, metals, and dyes. Among these, St has attracted a lot of attention. St can be mixed with other compounds to make hydrogels, which remove dyes and metal ions to variable degrees of efficiency. Although St has numerous advantages, it suffers from drawbacks such as low stability, low water solubility, and fast degradability in water which limit its application as an environmental adsorbent. As an effective way to overcome these weaknesses, various modification approaches to form starch-based hydrogels (SBHs) employing different compounds have been reported. The preparation methods and applications of SBH adsorbents in organic dyes, hazardous materials, and toxic ions elimination from water resources have been comprehensively discussed in this review.

Recent advances in polymer composite, extraction, and their application for wastewater treatment: A review

Wastewater from diverse industrial sectors, agricultural practices and other household activities causes water pollution that result in different environmental issues. The main goals of wastewater treatment are typically to enhance the purity of wastewater and to enable the disposal of domestic and industrial effluents without endangering human health or causing excessive environmental issues. There were several natural and synthetic materials which have been utilized for wastewater treatment, amongst them polymers gain more importance due to their non-toxicity, economic feasibility, abundant availability of sources, renewability, biocompatibility, biodegradability, etc. The organic polymers such as cellulose, chitin, gelatin, alginates, lignin, dextran and other starch derivatives are the most commonly used natural polymers in wastewater treatments. The unique physical and chemical characteristics of the natural polymers make them become an alternative in wastewater treatments such as membrane filtration, adsorption, coagulation, flocculation and ion-exchange process to remove harmful contaminants such as toxic metals, dyes, medicines, pesticides, and so on. The review article discusses natural polymers and related uses in wastewater treatment. This review mainly focused on the wastewater treatment using natural polymers and the techniques involved for their extraction from natural sources. The recent trends in polymer extraction from the natural sources and the scope for the future research of natural polymers in various sectors are also discussed in detail.

Synthesis, characteristics, and applications of modified starch nanoparticles: A review

Nowadays, starch nanoparticles (SNPs) are drawing attention to the scientific community due to their versatility and wide range of applications. Although several works have extensively addressed the SNP production routes, not much is discussed about the SNPs modification techniques, as well as the use of modified SNPs in typical and unconventional applications. Here, we focused on the SNP modification strategies and characteristics and performance of the resulting products, as well as their practical applications, while pointing out the main limitations and recommendations. We aim to guide researchers by identifying the next steps in this emerging line of research. SNPs esterification and oxidation are preferred chemical modifications, which result in changes in the functional groups. Moreover, additional polymers are incorporated into the SNP surface through copolymer grafting. Physical modification of starch has demonstrated similar changes in the functional groups without the need for toxic chemicals. Modified SNPs rendered differentiated properties, such as size, shape, crystallinity, hydrophobicity, and Zeta-potential. For multiple applications, tailoring the aforementioned properties is key to the performance of nanoparticle-based systems. However, the number of studies focusing on emerging applications is fairly limited, while their applications as drug delivery systems lack in vivo studies. The main challenges and prospects were discussed.

Hydrogel Based on Tricarboxi-Cellulose and Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Used as Biosorbent for Cobalt Ions Retention

A biomaterial based on poly(vinyl alcohol) reticulated with tricarboxi-cellulose obtained by TEMPO oxidation (OxC25) was used as a new biosorbent for Co(II) ions retention from aqueous solutions. The biosorption process of Co(II) ions was studied while mainly considering the operational factors that can influence it (i.e., biosorbent concentration, pH of the aqueous media, temperature and contact time of the phases). The maximum adsorption capacity was 181.82 mg/g, with the biosorption well fitted by the Langmuir model. The kinetic modeling of the biosorption process was based on certain models: Lagergreen (pseudo first order model), Ho (pseudo second order model), Elovich (heterogeneous biosorbent model), Webber-Morris (intraparticle diffusion model) and McKay (film diffusion model). The corresponding kinetic model suggests that this biosorption process followed a pseudo-second order kinetic model and was developed in two controlled steps beginning with film diffusion and followed by intraparticles diffusion.

Resource utilization and ionization modification of waste starch from the recycling process of old corrugated cardboard paper

Generally, the mechanical strength and stiffness of old corrugated cardboard (OCC) waste paper are decreased after multiple recycling procedures. Surface sizing starch, which is extensively used in the surface sizing of paper making, accumulates after dissolving from the fibers and is transformed into pollutant during the OCC re-pulping process. To overcome the pollution and reutilization problem of the waste starch during the recycling process of OCC paper, waste starch was ionized using hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) to improve the mechanical properties of OCC paper during the reutilization. The results showed that the carboxyl group of waste starch increased with an increasing degree of ionization, resulting in enhanced copper ion adsorption capacity. Furthermore, the retention rate of the modified starch in the wet-end increased from 18.0% to 48.2%. The OCC paper presented the highest burst index and tensile strength of 8.94 kPa m²/g and 112.5 N m/g, respectively, when MS-2 was added. This work has great significance for implementation of the cleaning production of OCC waste papers and the reutilization of the waste starch.

Cross-linked-substituted (esterified/etherified) starch derivatives as aqueous heavy metal ion adsorbent: a review

Starch is a biopolymer with outstanding economic and environmentally friendly attributes which has driven technological innovations to enhance its applications in food and non-food industries. Starch is constituted by O-H groups with valency and electronic characteristics that can initiate adsorption of aqueous heavy metal ions (AHMIs). However, this can be enhanced using various modification sequences. A common procedure is the cross-linking and substitution of the O-H groups via esterification and/or etherification reactions to produce starch derivative adsorbents (SDAs) with improved structural and functional properties for adsorption of AHMIs. The efficiency of SDAs developed using these procedures depends on the botanical source of the native starch base, porosity and structural stability of the derivative (i.e. degree of cross-linking), substituted functional group(s), degree of substitution and the steric/conformation effects of the substituted groups. Many works have been done to optimize these factors, and this review highlighted some of the tailored procedures and the results obtained.

Recent Advances in Edible Polymer Based Hydrogels as a Sustainable Alternative to Conventional Polymers

The over increasing demand of eco-friendly materials to counter various problems, such as environmental issues, economics, sustainability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility, open up new fields of research highly focusing on nature-based products. Edible polymer based materials mainly consisting of polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids could be a prospective contender to handle such problems. Hydrogels based on edible polymer offer many valuable properties compared to their synthetic counterparts. Edible polymers can contribute to the reduction of environmental contamination, advance recyclability, provide sustainability, and thereby increase its applicability along with providing environmentally benign products. This review is highly emphasizing on toward the development of hydrogels from edible polymer, their classification, properties, chemical modification, and their potential applications. The application of edible polymer hydrogels covers many areas including the food industry, agricultural applications, drug delivery to tissue engineering in the biomedical field and provide more safe and attractive products in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and environmental fields, etc.

Starch-metal complexes and metal compounds

Recently, metal derivatives of starch evoked considerable interest. Such metal derivatives can take a form of starch compounds bearing metal atoms and metal carrying moieties either covalently bound or complexed. Starch metal complexes may have a character of either Werner, inclusion, sorption or capillary complexes. In this publication, preparation, structure, properties and numerous current and potential applications of those compounds as well as benefits resulting from the application and formation of the complexes are presented. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Selective Filter Effect Induced by Cu(2+) Adsorption on the Fluorescence of a GdVO4:Eu Nanoprobe

Human blood contains substantial amounts of metal ions such as Mg(2+), Ca(2+), Fe(2+), Cu(2+), Zn(2+), Cd(2+), Pb(2+), and Al(3+). Most biomedical applications of nanoparticles require understanding the influence of these metal ions because adsorbed metal ions can affect the function of nanoparticles to limit their sensitivity, performance, stability, and/or resolution in applications. In the present work, the adsorption of various metal ions at the surface of GdVO4:Eu nanoparticles was studied to assess their spectral filter effect on the fluorescence of GdVO4:Eu. Due to the negative surface potential, the electrostatic attraction caused an intensive adsorption reaction of GdVO4:Eu nanoparticles with metal cations. Compared to the adsorption of other common metal ions in human blood, the distinct fluorescence quenching of GdVO4:Eu was induced in the presence of Cu(2+) ions. On the basis of the UV-vis absorption spectrum of an aqueous CuCl2 solution and reflectance spectrum of Cu(OH)2, in which the surroundings of Cu(2+) ions are supposedly similar to the hydroxylated surface of GdVO4:Eu nanoparticles, it is proposed that the complementary overlap of the emission band of GdVO4:Eu with the absorption band of Cu(2+) results in the effective filter effect to quench the red emission. Because GdVO4:Eu nanoparticles are attractive candidates for applications as magnetic/fluorescent multimodal nanoprobes, it is important to recognize that the average amount of Cu(2+) ion in human blood is sufficient to interfere with or limit the fluorescence probe function of GdVO4:Eu nanoparticles.

A novel starch-based adsorbent for removing toxic Hg(II) and Pb(II) ions from aqueous solution

A novel effective starch-based adsorbent was prepared through two common reactions, which included the esterification of starch with excess maleic anhydride in the presence of pyridine and the cross-linking reaction of the obtained macromonomer with acrylic acid by using potassium persulphate as initiator. The percentage of carboxylic groups of the macromonomer ranged from 14% to 33.4%. The cross-linking degree of the adsorbent was tailored with the amount of acrylic acid which varied from 10wt% to 80wt%. Both Fourier transform infrared spectra and thermogravimetric analysis results verified the structure of the adsorbent. The maximum gel fraction and swelling ratio of the adsorbent were about 72% and 6.25, respectively, and they were able to be adjusted with the amount of monomers. The weight loss percentage of the adsorbent could reach 96.9% after immersing in the buffer solution that contained α-amylase for 14h. It was found that the adsorption capacities of the adsorbent for lead and mercury ions could be 123.2 and 131.2mg/g, respectively. In addition, the adsorbent was able to remove ca. 51-90% Pb(II) and Hg(II) ions that existed in the decoctions of four medicinal herbals.