Polysaccharide Ecocomposite Materials: Synthesis, Characterization and Application for Removal of Pollutants and Bacteria

A novel, simple and totally recyclable method has been developed for the synthesis of nontoxic, biocompatible and biodegradable composite materials from cellulose and chitosan. In this method, [BMIm+Cl-], an ionic liquid (IL), was used as a solvent to dissolve and synthesize the [CEL+CS] composite materials. Since the IL can be removed from the materials by washing them with water, and recovered from the washed solution, the method is totally recyclable. XRD, FTIR, NIR and SEM were used to characterize the materials and to confirm that CEL and CS were successfully regenerated by the method without any chemical transformation. More importantly, we have successfully demonstrated that [CEL+CS] material can serve as an effective adsorbent for removal various endocrine disruptors including polychlorophenols and bisphenol A. This is because the composites have combined advantages of their components, namely superior chemical stability and mechanical stability (from CEL) and excellent adsorption capability for pollutants (from CS).