Plasma-enhanced modification of polysaccharides for wastewater treatment: A review

[Display omitted] •Plasma technology as an alternative tool for enhanced-adsorptive properties.•Novel plasma-modified sorbents based on polysaccharides developed in recent years.•This work inspires the buildout of efficient and sustainable sorbents using plasma technologies. In this work, novel polysaccharide-based sorbents modified with plasma technologies are discussed. Plasma selectively modifies the surface properties by generating specific moieties, enhancing adsorption performance, and the physical-chemical properties of the material without modifying its bulk properties. Among plasma technologies, cold plasma is more suitable and energy-efficient, since thermal-sensitive materials could be modified using this technology. Besides, atmospheric-pressure plasma systems possess the required features to scale-up plasma technologies for surface modification of sorbents. Moreover, a big challenge is the semi-continuous operation to modify sorbents as it would decrease overall process costs. Due to its low-cost and extensive availability, polysaccharide-based sorbents are promising substrates for plasma-enhanced modification to develop highly efficient adsorbents. The development of polysaccharide-based materials includes modified cellulose, chitosan, or lignocellulosic materials with functionalities that increase adsorption capacity and selectivity towards a specific organic or inorganic pollutant.