Medicinal Chemistry

Polymer-Clay Nanocomposites and Composites: Structures, Characteristics, and their Applications in the Removal of Organic Compounds of Environmental Interest

Abstract

Karina Abigail Hernández- Hernández, Javier Illescas, María del Carmen Díaz- Nava, Claudia Rosario Muro- Urista, Sonia Martínez- Gallegos and Rosa Elena Ortega- Aguilar

Nowadays, many organic contaminants, some of them byproducts from other types of reactions such as dyes or phenolic compounds, or even endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, have been detected in wastewater. Most of them are not controlled and, possibly, can cause harmful effects in aquatic life at environmentally significant concentrations. It is noteworthy, that conventional wastewater treatment plants are not always effective for the removal of these classes of pollutants and so further water treatments are necessary. Therefore, many processes have been investigated for advanced treatment of these effluents as well as for organic pollutants degradation; among these, adsorption process has been used to remove them from wastewater. In addition, there has been a considerable development of new materials with interesting properties, both at large scale and at micro- or nanoscale. Some of these materials are more efficient than others, due to their dimensions in these latter scales, in different kind of applications; specifically, in the field of water treatment. This review is a brief survey of the main characteristics, structures, advantages and recent advances on polymer-clay composites (PCC’s) and polymer-clay nanocomposites (PCN’s), for environmental applications. In the first part are included some basic concepts: composite materials have components with contrasting yet complementary properties; e.g., organoclays which serve as reinforcement of polymeric matrices and give them a larger contact surface and greater mechanical strength. In particular, PCN’s are materials that are used in different applications, for instance to model the morphology of partially crystalline polymers, to remove pollutants from water effluents, to employ them in adsorption processes from water streams, etc. Finally, in the second part, some of developments in the synthesis and applications of these novel materials are discussed; in particular, applications on the field of water pollutants removal through the adsorption process.