Functional Materials from Waste Biomass and Plastics

Natural polymers such as chitosan, DNA, cellulose, etc. that can be extracted from various biomass waste, attract significant attention as a sustainable source for creation of environmentally friendly and renewable materials. On the other hand, mass production of plastics and accumulation of plastic waste in the environment urges development of robust chemical processes for plastic waste conversion to value-added materials.

Our group develops methods for waste biomass and waste plastics conversion to resources and, consequently, to valuable materials. We utilize such recycled materials in a broad spectrum of applications such as (1) adsorbents for water cleaning, (2) templates for catalytic nanomaterials, (3) materials for environmental pollution sensing, (4) materials for soil improvement and others.

 

Conversion of waste plastics to functional materials

To ensure sustainable use of natural resources and circulation of materials, efficient methods of waste plastic conversion into higher value chemicals and scenarios for utilization of the latter are increasingly demanded. We started to develop waste plastic conversion methods to prepare functional materials that can be utilized in fields of environmental and civil engineering.

The following waste plastic conversion processes have been recently developed.

 

Soil improvement by biomass polymers

Biomass-derived polymers are being increasingly utilized as eco-friendly functional materials in various fields ranging from agriculture to environmental and chemical engineering. We develop methods for improvement of soil, sand, and clay materials using treatment formulations based on renewable polymers avalable from biomass waste. Such systems are attractive due to environmental friendliness and sustainability and they can be also utilized for the construction of functional platforms for soil pollution control and prevention.

The very first report on this topic has been recently published.

 

DNA-based functional materials

Nucleic acids (DNA) can be extracted from fish milt, the waste product of fishery industry. The unique chemical structure of DNA makes it attractive for application related to DNA interaction with metal ions and construction of metal nanostructures that can be used for nanoelectronics and catalytic application. Recently, we particularly focus on design and applications of DNA hydrogels as functional materials.

During past several years we developed the following techniques based on DNA:

  1. Removal of heavy metal ions (J. Hazard. Mater. 2009), industrial dyes and pharmaceuticals (Gels 2021) and extraction of noble and rare-earth metals using DNA-based materials (ChemPlusChem 2013)
  2. DNA-based materials (hydrogels, thin films, etc.) for templating and nesting of catalytic nanoparticles (ACS Applied Mater. Interfaces 2014, J. Nanopart. Res. 2016, Colloid Polym. Sci. 2019, ACS Applied Bio Mater. 2021, ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2021)
  3. Metallization of DNA for preparation of metal nanomaterials (Adv. Mater. 2005, Langmuir 2011, Nanotechnology 2012)
  4. Fluorescent nanomaterials from DNA for sensing of environmental pollutants (Nanomaterials 2021, Biosensors 2021)

 

Chitosan-based functional materials

Chitin is cheap and readily available polysaccharide that can be obtained from marine waste such as shrimp and crab shells. Chitosan, a cationic polymer, which is obtained by deacetylation of chitin, has been extensively explored for applications in fields of food, cosmetics, environment, etc. The cationic nature of chitosan is rare for biomass-derived polymers, and it makes it a unique choice for construction of functional systems by combining with an anionic polymers or colloids.

We develop the following environmental techniques and chitosan-based adsorbents.

  1. Removal of heavy metals, dyes, and other environmental pollutants using chitosan-based adsorbents such as chitosan magnetic beads (Chem. Eng. J. 2018) and chitosan hydrogels (Gels 2021)
  2. Removal of Cs+ ions as an approach for treatment of radioactive Cs+ pollution (J. Hazard. Mater. 2019)
  3. Removal of nanoparticulate pollution from water (Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. 2018)
  4. Treatment of polluted sand and soil for pollution immobilization and prevention of its transport (Chemosphere 2018)

 

New and upcoming projects

Beside the above projects, we also work on the following probelms.

  1. Chemical recycling of waste plastic and biomass using microwave technologies
  2. Preparation of micro- and nanoplastic mimics to study their physico-chemical properties, behavior in the environment, and approaches for removal.
  3. Functional materilas prepared from biomass-derived nanofibers.