Crystalline nanocellulose based sustainable nanoscopic composite membrane production: removal of metal ions from water

Most polymer membranes employed for water decentralization have petroleum-based building blocks, indeed, have significant drawbacks like non-renewable resources, complex and costly processing and untailored surfaces. Hence, an urgent need of a robust, sustainable, biodegradable and tunable nano/micro material is required which could be used as functional and structural building martials for production of polymeric membranes for water purification. So, high-grade crystalline forms of cellulose (NCC and CNW) have been used as functional materials for the production of active hybrid membranes using poly(D-lactic acid) (PDLA) as matrix for separation of metal ions. Furthermore, effect of structural and functional properties of these nanoscale particles were analyzed with respect to networking potential, physicochemicals properties, and performance of fabricated sustainable hybrid membranes. Indeed, NCCs and CNWs based PDLA membranes have high porosity compared to pristine PDLA membrane. Furthermore, the CNWs hybrid membranes revealed high interconnected networking potential. In parallel, CNW particle have greater interfacial adhesion with PDLA compared to its NCC counterpart. High percentage removal of ions (74% for Co²⁺ and 76% for Ni²⁺) was reported when hybrid membrane of 1wt% CNW was tested in continuous crossflow mode. Furthermore, recovery of water flux was reported after cleaning of composite membranes. Thus, produced hybrid membranes are next generation prototype design of high-performance filtration device and a necessitated push for a sustainable society. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].