Emerging contaminants in wastewater are becoming a serious concern, posing significant risks to aquatic ecosystem and human life. In this context different strategies have been introduced over the years but adsorption is getting a lot of interest because it is not expensive, is easy to perform, easy to scale up, and adsorbents can also be regenerated and reused. Considering this, it is essential to find and introduce new efficient adsorbent materials that can remove contaminants from wastewater. Different kind of polymers have been studied for sorption purpose, but recently polymers capable of forming nanoporous crystalline phases (NC) have gained attention in this field, and, in particular, poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene)oxide (PPO), a commercially available polymer, turned out to be very promising since it showed very high kinetics uptake of pollutants even from dilute aqueous solution. In this communication PPO films with NC phases used to remove contaminants, in particular dyes and organic pollutants such as PCE, nicotine, from water will be presented. Further, a sulfonation procedure of the polymer was performed: remarkable and unique results were achieved since kinetic uptakes and removal efficiency were higher due to the sulfonic groups present in the PPO amorphous phase; indeed by enhancing hydrophilicity, and by exposing anionic groups, it can both improve the diffusion of the pollutant molecules in the NC phase and, further to this, it promotes the removal of cationic contaminants by electrostatic interactions. Adsorption kinetic and thermodynamic were studied throughout mathematical model, and different effects (such as initial concentration of contaminant, variation of temperature, pH and adsorbent dosage, etc.) were studied to better understand the mechanism of adsorption involved in this process. Moreover, recent results based on physical functionalization to obtain PPO films presenting amorphous hydrophilic phase and nanocrystalline hydrophobic phase, showing high surface area for organic pollutant removal, will also be presented.
Pollutant removal from wastewater throughout a functionalized membrane based on poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene)oxide (PPO)
Domenico Riccardi
;Gianluca Viscusi;Giuliana Gorrasi;Paola Rizzo
2026
Abstract
Emerging contaminants in wastewater are becoming a serious concern, posing significant risks to aquatic ecosystem and human life. In this context different strategies have been introduced over the years but adsorption is getting a lot of interest because it is not expensive, is easy to perform, easy to scale up, and adsorbents can also be regenerated and reused. Considering this, it is essential to find and introduce new efficient adsorbent materials that can remove contaminants from wastewater. Different kind of polymers have been studied for sorption purpose, but recently polymers capable of forming nanoporous crystalline phases (NC) have gained attention in this field, and, in particular, poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene)oxide (PPO), a commercially available polymer, turned out to be very promising since it showed very high kinetics uptake of pollutants even from dilute aqueous solution. In this communication PPO films with NC phases used to remove contaminants, in particular dyes and organic pollutants such as PCE, nicotine, from water will be presented. Further, a sulfonation procedure of the polymer was performed: remarkable and unique results were achieved since kinetic uptakes and removal efficiency were higher due to the sulfonic groups present in the PPO amorphous phase; indeed by enhancing hydrophilicity, and by exposing anionic groups, it can both improve the diffusion of the pollutant molecules in the NC phase and, further to this, it promotes the removal of cationic contaminants by electrostatic interactions. Adsorption kinetic and thermodynamic were studied throughout mathematical model, and different effects (such as initial concentration of contaminant, variation of temperature, pH and adsorbent dosage, etc.) were studied to better understand the mechanism of adsorption involved in this process. Moreover, recent results based on physical functionalization to obtain PPO films presenting amorphous hydrophilic phase and nanocrystalline hydrophobic phase, showing high surface area for organic pollutant removal, will also be presented.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
