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Polymers
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Polymer Composites for Biomedical and Environmental Applications II
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Polymer Composites for Biomedical and Environmental Applications II

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 4557

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Sayan Ganguly

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel
Interests: polymer composites; hydrogels; sensor; quantum dots; EMI shielding; magnetic nanoparticles for imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymer composites are a special class of reinforced systems that have been known about for almost 60 years. In this issue, we would like to highlight two special areas of polymer composites. In the biomedical area, polymeric gels, block copolymers, conjugates and drug–polymer assemblies have been attracting attention for many decades. Due to the non-cytotoxic nature of polymers, the medical area has also been widely occupied by biopolymers. We also highlight both the synthetic as well natural polymers for these purposes.

In water remediation, polymer composites are also drawing attention as adsorbents, hydrogels and membranes. Our aim is to accumulate some cutting-edge research papers from various domains in the world and publish about the benefits for the scientific community.  

Dr. Sayan Ganguly
Guest Editor 

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • polymer composites biomaterials
  • water treatment
  • pollutant

Published Papers (4 papers)

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13 pages, 2023 KiB  
Article
Selective Sorption of Heavy Metals by Renewable Polysaccharides
by Oshrat Levy-Ontman, Chanan Yanay, Yaron Alfi, Ofra Paz-Tal and Adi Wolfson
Polymers 2023, 15(22), 4457; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15224457 - 18 Nov 2023
Viewed by 777
Abstract
Renewable and biodegradable polysaccharides have attracted interest for their wide applicability, among them their use as sorbents for heavy metal ions. Their high sorption capacity is due mainly to the acidic groups that populate the polysaccharide backbone, for example, carboxylic groups in alginate [...] Read more.
Renewable and biodegradable polysaccharides have attracted interest for their wide applicability, among them their use as sorbents for heavy metal ions. Their high sorption capacity is due mainly to the acidic groups that populate the polysaccharide backbone, for example, carboxylic groups in alginate and sulfate ester groups in the iota and lambda carrageenans. In this study, these three polysaccharides were employed, alone or in different mixtures, to recover different heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. All three polysaccharides were capable of adsorbing Eu3+, Sm3+, Er3+, or UO22+ and their mixtures, findings that were also confirmed using XPS, TGA, and FTIR analyses. In addition, the highest sorption yields of all the metal ions were obtained using alginate, alone or in mixtures. While the alginate with carboxylic and hydroxyl groups adsorbed different ions with the same selectivity, carrageenans with sulfate ester and hydroxyl groups exhibited higher adsorption selectivity for lanthanides than for uranyl, indicating that the activity of the sulfate ester groups toward trivalent and smaller ions was higher. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Composites for Biomedical and Environmental Applications II)
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21 pages, 8415 KiB  
Article
Modeling of the Aqueous Solubility of N-butyl-N-methyl-1-phenylpyrrolo[1,2-a] pyrazine-3-carboxamide: From Micronization to Creation of Amorphous–Crystalline Composites with a Polymer
by Vladimir B. Markeev, Sergey V. Tishkov, Anton M. Vorobei, Olga O. Parenago, Evgenia V. Blynskaya, Konstantin V. Alekseev, Anna I. Marakhova and Alexandre A. Vetcher
Polymers 2023, 15(20), 4136; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15204136 - 18 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1201
Abstract
N-butyl-N-methyl-1-phenylpyrrole[1,2-a] pyrazine-3-carboxamide (GML-3) is a potential candidate for combination drug therapy due to its anxiolytic and antidepressant activity. The anxiolytic activity of GML-3 is comparable to diazepam. The antidepressant activity of GML-3 is comparable to amitriptyline. GML-3 is an 18 kDa mitochondrial translocator [...] Read more.
N-butyl-N-methyl-1-phenylpyrrole[1,2-a] pyrazine-3-carboxamide (GML-3) is a potential candidate for combination drug therapy due to its anxiolytic and antidepressant activity. The anxiolytic activity of GML-3 is comparable to diazepam. The antidepressant activity of GML-3 is comparable to amitriptyline. GML-3 is an 18 kDa mitochondrial translocator protein (TSPO) ligand and is devoid of most of the side effects of diazepam, which makes the research on the creation of drugs based on it promising. However, its low water solubility and tendency to agglomerate prevented its release. This research aimed to study the effect of dry grinding, the rapid expansion of a supercritical solution (RESS), and the eutectic mixture (composite) of GML-3 with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) on the particle size, dissolution rate, and lattice retention of GML-3. The use of supercritical CO2 in the RESS method was promising in terms of particle size reduction, resulting in a reduction in the particle size of GML-3 to 20–40 nm with a 430-fold increase in dissolution rate. However, in addition to particle size reduction after RESS, GML-3 began to show signs of a polymorphism phenomenon, which was also studied in this article. It was found that coarse grinding reduced particle size by a factor of 2 but did not significantly affect solubility or crystal structure. Co-milling with the polymer made it possible to level the effect of the appearance of a residual electrostatic charge on the particles, as in the case of grinding, and the increased solubility in the resulting mechanical mixtures of GML-3 with the polymer may also indicate the dissolving properties of polymers (an increase in 400–800 times). The best result in terms of GML-3 solubility was demonstrated by the resulting GML-3:PVP composite at a ratio of 1:4, which made it possible to achieve a solubility of about 80% active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) within an hour with an increase in the dissolution rate by 1600 times. Thus, the creation of composites is the most effective method for improving the solubility of GML-3, superior to micronization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Composites for Biomedical and Environmental Applications II)
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13 pages, 2218 KiB  
Article
Removal of the Water Pollutant Ciprofloxacin Using Biodegradable Sorbent Polymers Obtained from Polysaccharides
by Sarah Alvarado, Alicia Megia-Fernandez, Mariano Ortega-Muñoz, Fernando Hernandez-Mateo, F. Javier Lopez-Jaramillo and Francisco Santoyo-Gonzalez
Polymers 2023, 15(15), 3188; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15153188 - 27 Jul 2023
Viewed by 859
Abstract
Water use has been increasing globally by 1% per year, and recycling and re-use are critical issues compromised by the presence of pollutants. In this context, the design of novel materials and/or procedures for the large scale-removal of pollutants must be economically and [...] Read more.
Water use has been increasing globally by 1% per year, and recycling and re-use are critical issues compromised by the presence of pollutants. In this context, the design of novel materials and/or procedures for the large scale-removal of pollutants must be economically and environmentally feasible in order to be considered as part of the solution by emerging economies. We demonstrate that the cross-linking of biodegradable polysaccharides such as starch, dextrin, or dextrin and β-cyclodextrin with divinyl sulfone is an innovative strategy for synthesizing insoluble and eco-friendly sorbent polymers, including pSt, pDx and pCD-Dx. The evaluation of these polymers’ ability to remove ciprofloxacin (CIP), a prime example of antibiotic pollution, revealed that pSt, with a Kd of 1469 L/kg and a removal rate higher than 92%, is a favorable material. Its sorption is pH-dependent and enhanced at a mildly alkaline pH, allowing for the desorption (i.e., cleaning) and reuse of pSt through an environmentally friendly treatment with 20 mM AcONa pH 4.6. The facts that pSt (i) shows a high affinity for CIP even at high NaCl concentrations, (ii) can be obtained from affordable starting materials, and (iii) is synthesized and regenerated through organic, solvent-free procedures make pSt a novel sustainable material for inland water and seawater remediation, especially in less developed countries, due to its simplicity and low cost. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Composites for Biomedical and Environmental Applications II)
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17 pages, 3449 KiB  
Article
Conjugated Polymer Modifying TiO2 Performance for Visible-Light Photodegradation of Organics
by Cristina Giorgiana Coromelci, Elvira Turcu, Florica Doroftei, Mircea Nicolae Palamaru and Maria Ignat
Polymers 2023, 15(13), 2805; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15132805 - 24 Jun 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 908
Abstract
Up to now, the use of TiO2 has been considered a promising advanced technology for organic pollutants removal from air or water, since it has high biological and chemical stability, high photoactivity, low toxicity, and low-cost production. However, there are issues to [...] Read more.
Up to now, the use of TiO2 has been considered a promising advanced technology for organic pollutants removal from air or water, since it has high biological and chemical stability, high photoactivity, low toxicity, and low-cost production. However, there are issues to be addressed in enhancing TiO2 performance, and one of the current key issues is redesigning UV-active photocatalysts and making them active in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This way, solar light absorption will be insured, and thus, a more efficient photocatalyst could be obtained. For this reason, conjugated polymers and their derivatives are considered to act as photosensitizers, being able to shift the TiO2 activity from the UV to the visible region. Therefore, this study focuses on the synthesis of TiO2/conjugated polymer systems, which was accomplished by the deposition of poly-3,4-ethylene-dioxy-thiophene (PEDOT [-C6H4O2S-]n), a low-band semiconductor with an excellent stability due to its extending π-conjugated electron system, on titania nanoarchitecture. First of all, a TiO2 nanoarchitecture was synthesized by an ultrasound-assisted sol–gel method. Then, TiO2/PEDOT systems were obtained and characterized by using different techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance, and N2 sorption measurements. The synthesized composites confirmed their mesoporosity and lower band gap values compared to bare titania, which clearly shows the ability to work as photocatalysts under visible-light activity. Further, we demonstrated that an organic pollutant, Congo Red dye, used as a model molecule could be photodegraded with the synthesized TiO2/PEDOT systems, with efficiencies of up to 95% in the case of TconvPEDOT under UV light and up to 99% for TconvPEDOT under visible-light irradiation, accomplishing in this way a successful synthesis of visible-light-activated titania photocatalyst. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Composites for Biomedical and Environmental Applications II)
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