MEMBRANES AS A QUICK, EFFECTIVE, AND LOW-COST ALTERNATIVE FOR TO DETECT AND CAPTURE TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND HEAVY METALS

BASTIDA, G.A.; GALVÁN, M. V.; DELGADO-AGUILAR, M.; AGUADO, ROBERTO; M.A. ZANUTTINI; QUIM TARRÉS

Córdoba

Workshop; 3rd International Workshop on Biorefinery of Lignocellulosic Materials; 2023

IWBLCM 2023; IDM

Carbon dioxide from gaseous feed streams or pollution caused by heavy metals are a serious problem that poses a risk to food safety and public health. In this sense, innovative methods are being sought to detect and capture toxic substances and heavy metals. Membranes represent a promising alternative for this purpose. Gorgieva et al. (2019) studied the adsorption capacity of membranes made from carboxymethylcellulose and cellulose nanofibers and demonstrated their potential for removing cationic dyes. One possible alternative is to functionalize cellulose micro/nanofibers and then disperse them in cellulose acetate or PLA to obtain fibers with a large specific surface area. The effect of adding CNFs to the properties of PLA-based membranes was analyzed by Gaitán and Gacitúa (2018), who found that the addition of 1% CNF strengthens the material under tensile and tear stress. In this work, cellulose acetate con cellulose nanofibers (CNF) membranes were produced by electrospinning and the mechanical and morphological properties of the different formulations were analyzed. An important effect of the CNF on the porosity of the films and their physical properties was found. This leads to think of membranes as a potential solution to absorb or remove unwanted substances.