Responsive cellulose fibre and polymer-based adsorbents for contaminant removal

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The contaminants from industrial effluents have been persistently released into the environment and caused serious soil and water pollution. Among various approaches for tackling the environmental concerns, the adsorption technique is regarded as one of the most competitive methods for contaminant removal due to its high efficiency and economic feasibility. Despite of various adsorbents reported, the key issues related to smart performance and recovering difficulty still remain.The proposed research targets the exploitation of green-based, stimulus-responsive cellulose fibre and polymer-based adsorbents with the intrinsic capability to reversibly change their configuration or association caused by an external trigger such as pH, temperature or redox reaction, thus facilitating the adsorption and recovery of adsorbents. The long-term vision of the research is to address the environmental concerns using smart and environmental-friendly adsorbents which can modulate the adsorption and desorption. The specific goals are:(i) to develop a range of smart cellulose fibre-based green adsorbents incorporated with responsive behaviors (i.e., thermal, pH or redox responsive properties) via various approaches; and(ii) to synthesize responsive polymeric absorbents via novel porous calcium carbonate-templated free-radical copolymerization and reactive extrusion with nano-CaCO3 as extractable fillers.To achieve the objectives above, two subprojects are proposed:1. Responsive cellulose-fibre based bioadsorbents mainly prepared by surface-induced living free-radical polymerization of various monomers, semi-interpenetrating polymer network and grafting of pre-prepared responsive polymers on fibre surfaces.2. Polymeric adsorbents prepared using CaCO3 as template or extractable filler which are associated with two innovative processes for fabricating polymer adsorbents, i.e., porous CaCO3-templated polymerization and reactive extrusion.The resulting smart adsorbents and the sorption and desorption behavior will be comprehensively characterized using various state-of-art techniques.The findings of the proposed research will fundamentally guide future molecular and structural designs for novel and smart bioadsorbents, and facilitate the recovery of adsorbents. Ultimately, a range of value-added cellulose fibre products will be created for the Canadian forestry and pulp and paper industries, which represent an important Canadian industrial sector that made a total contribution of more than $21 billion to nominal GDP in 2015 (NRC Canada). In conjunction with smart polymer adsorbents and extendable applications in biomaterials and pharmaceuticals, the benefits will be further magnified. The proposed research also has strong impact on HQP training, thus ensuring a steady supply of HQP for the Canadian environmental sector and pulp & paper industry.