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Polymers
Special Issues

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment
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Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 12048

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Shuang Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Environment & Ecology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China
Interests: organic pollutants; PFAS; photocatalytic materials; computational chemistry simulations; environmental models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chao Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
Interests: multifunctional polymers; valorization of solid waste; bio-based polymers; environmental protection
Dr. Longzao Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao, China
Interests: multifunctional polymers; bio-based polymers; microalgae; nutrient recovery from wastewater; biomaterials; heavy metals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Multifunctional nanocomposites have attracted attention because of their unique characteristics and are thus being used extensively in numerous applications. This Special Issue aims to present a collection of articles on environmentally friendly multifunctional nanomaterials in this field for their application in environmental treatment, production, and agricultural production.

This Special Issue will cover but not be limited to the following potential topics:

  • Preparation, synthesis, and improvement of environmentally friendly multifunctional nanocomposites;
  • Contributions to the management and protection of the environment, including the atmosphere, water, soil, and solid waste;
  • Uses in the agricultural environment to help to protect arable land and reduce pollutants in agricultural products;
  • New technological approaches to the development of these multifunctional nanocomposites.

Original research articles, reviews, letters to the editor, and short communications are welcome.

Dr. Shuang Luo
Dr. Chao Liu
Dr. Longzao Luo
Guest Editors

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

  • nanocomposites
  • agricultural application
  • environmental treatment
  • agricultural environment
  • wastewater treatment
  • organic matter degradation

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 7655 KiB  
Article
Biodegradable Polylactic Acid-Polyhydroxyalkanoate-Based Nanocomposites with Bio-Hydroxyapatite: Preparation and Characterization
by Preeyaporn Injorhor, Tatiya Trongsatitkul, Jatuporn Wittayakun, Chaiwat Ruksakulpiwat and Yupaporn Ruksakulpiwat
Polymers 2023, 15(5), 1261; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15051261 - 02 Mar 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1963
Abstract
Biodegradable polymers play a significant role in medical applications, especially internal devices because they can be broken down and absorbed into the body without producing harmful degradation products. In this study, biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA)-polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-based nanocomposites with various PHA and nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAp) [...] Read more.
Biodegradable polymers play a significant role in medical applications, especially internal devices because they can be broken down and absorbed into the body without producing harmful degradation products. In this study, biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA)-polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-based nanocomposites with various PHA and nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAp) contents were prepared using solution casting method. Mechanical properties, microstructure, thermal stability, thermal properties, and in vitro degradation of the PLA-PHA-based composites were investigated. PLA-20PHA/5nHAp was shown to give the desired properties so it was selected to investigate electrospinnability at different applied high voltages. PLA-20PHA/5nHAp composite shows the highest improvement of tensile strength at 36.6 ± 0.7 MPa, while PLA-20PHA/10nHAp composite shows the highest thermal stability and in vitro degradation at 7.55% of weight loss after 56 days of immersion in PBS solution. The addition of PHA in PLA-PHA-based nanocomposites improved elongation at break, compared to the composite without PHA. PLA-20PHA/5nHAp solution was successfully fabricated into fibers by electrospinning. All obtained fibers showed smooth and continuous fibers without beads with diameters of 3.7 ± 0.9, 3.5 ± 1.2, and 2.1 ± 0.7 µm at applied high voltages of 15, 20, and 25 kV, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

)
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17 pages, 4590 KiB  
Article
Preparation of Heavy Metal Trapping Flocculant Polyacrylamide–Glutathione and Its Application for Cadmium Removal from Water
by Wenjie Ding, Yunyan Wang, Weizhi Zeng, Hui Xu and Bingxin Chen
Polymers 2023, 15(3), 500; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15030500 - 18 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1538
Abstract
In this study, a heavy metal trapping gel with multiple ligand groups was prepared for the first time using response surface methodology. The gel was produced by condensing and grafting glutathione as a grafting monomer onto the main polyacrylamide chain, based on the [...] Read more.
In this study, a heavy metal trapping gel with multiple ligand groups was prepared for the first time using response surface methodology. The gel was produced by condensing and grafting glutathione as a grafting monomer onto the main polyacrylamide chain, based on the Mannich reaction mechanism with formaldehyde. FTIR, SEM, TG-DSC, and zeta potentials were used to characterize the gel. The results demonstrated that the gel was morphologically folded and porous, with a net-like structure, which enhanced its net trapping and sweeping abilities, and that glutathione was used to provide sulfhydryl groups to boost the metal trapping ability of polyacrylamide. Coagulation experiments showed that the highest efficiency of the removal of Cd ions from water samples was achieved when the concentration of polyacrylamide–glutathione was 84.48 mgL−1, the concentration of Cd was 10.0 mgL−1, the initial turbidity was 10.40 NTU, and the initial pH was 9.0. Furthermore, the presence of two cations, Cu and Zn, had an inhibitory effect on the removal of Cd ions. In addition, analysis of the zeta potential revealed the flocculation of polyacrylamide–glutathione. The flocculation mechanism of glutathione is mainly chelation, adsorption bridging, and netting sweeping. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

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13 pages, 2689 KiB  
Article
Controllable Preparation of Superparamagnetic Fe3O4@La(OH)3 Inorganic Polymer for Rapid Adsorption and Separation of Phosphate
by Yao Lu, Xuna Jin, Xiang Li, Minpeng Liu, Baolei Liu, Xiaodan Zeng, Jie Chen, Zhigang Liu, Shihua Yu and Yucheng Xu
Polymers 2023, 15(1), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15010248 - 03 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1796
Abstract
Superparamagnetic Fe3O4 particles have been synthesized by solvothermal method, and a layer of dense silica sol polymer is coated on the surface prepared by sol-gel technique; then La(OH)3 covered the surface of silica sol polymer in an irregular shape [...] Read more.
Superparamagnetic Fe3O4 particles have been synthesized by solvothermal method, and a layer of dense silica sol polymer is coated on the surface prepared by sol-gel technique; then La(OH)3 covered the surface of silica sol polymer in an irregular shape by controlled in situ growth technology. These magnetic materials are characterized by TEM, FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDS and VSM; the results show that La(OH)3 nanoparticles have successfully modified on Fe3O4 surface. The prepared Fe3O4@La(OH)3 inorganic polymer has been used as adsorbent to remove phosphate efficiently. The effects of solution pH, adsorbent dosage and co-existing ions on phosphate removal are investigated. Moreover, the adsorption kinetic equation and isothermal model are used to describe the adsorption performance of Fe3O4@La(OH)3. It was observed that Fe3O4@La(OH)3 exhibits a fast equilibrium time of 20 min, high phosphate removal rate (>95.7%), high sorption capacity of 63.72 mgP/g, excellent selectivity for phosphate in the presence of competing ions, under the conditions of phosphate concentration 30 mgP/L, pH = 7, adsorbent dose 0.6 g/L and room temperature. The phosphate adsorption process by Fe3O4@La(OH)3 is best described by the pseudo-second-order equation and Langmuir isotherm model. Furthermore, the real samples and reusability experiment indicate that Fe3O4@La(OH)3 could be regenerated after desorption, and 92.78% phosphate removing remained after five cycles. Therefore, La(OH)3 nanoparticles deposited on the surface of monodisperse Fe3O4 microspheres have been synthesized for the first time by a controlled in-situ growth method. Experiments have proved that Fe3O4@La(OH)3 particles with fast separability, large adsorption capacity and easy reusability can be used as a promising material in the treatment of phosphate wastewater or organic pollutants containing phosphoric acid functional group. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

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17 pages, 3695 KiB  
Article
Fabrication and Characterization of Hydrogen Peroxide and Thymol-Loaded PVA/PVP Hydrogel Coatings as a Novel Anti-Mold Surface for Hay Protection
by Eyal Malka, Ayelet Caspi, Reut Cohen and Shlomo Margel
Polymers 2022, 14(24), 5518; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14245518 - 16 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1445
Abstract
Animal food source production is increasing due to the growing world population. Many sources (e.g., hay) are prone to mold development, resulting in food degradation. This study proposes an environmentally friendly anti-mold fungicide comprising hydrogen peroxide (HP) and thymol entrapped in a polyvinyl [...] Read more.
Animal food source production is increasing due to the growing world population. Many sources (e.g., hay) are prone to mold development, resulting in food degradation. This study proposes an environmentally friendly anti-mold fungicide comprising hydrogen peroxide (HP) and thymol entrapped in a polyvinyl alcohol/pyrrolidone (PVA/PVP) hydrogel (PVA is biodegradable and PVP is water soluble and non-toxic) coated on a polyethylene (PE) films for preservative hay packaging. The hydrogels improved the thermal stability of the entrapped HP and thymol, resulting in a prolonged release into the hay and thereby increasing anti-mold activity. The hydrogel composition and morphology, thymol and HP thermal stability, and release rates through indirect (gas phase) contact were investigated. Fungicidal capabilities were tested, indicating wide-range efficiency against mold growth on hay with a clear advantage for the thymol-loaded hydrogels. No visual side effects were observed on hay exposed to the released fumes of HP and/or thymol. These results demonstrate the potential of thymol-loaded hydrogels as effective and safe post-harvest preservatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

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12 pages, 3994 KiB  
Article
Application of Superhydrophobic Mesh Coated by PDMS/TiO2 Nanocomposites for Oil/Water Separation
by Kun Cao, Xi Huang and Jie Pan
Polymers 2022, 14(24), 5431; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14245431 - 12 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1665
Abstract
Superhydrophobic materials have recently attracted great interest from both academia and industry due to their promising applications in self-cleaning, oil–water separation, etc. Here, we developed a facile method to prepare hybrid PDMS/TiO2 fiber for superhydrophobic coatings. TiO2 could be uniformly distributed [...] Read more.
Superhydrophobic materials have recently attracted great interest from both academia and industry due to their promising applications in self-cleaning, oil–water separation, etc. Here, we developed a facile method to prepare hybrid PDMS/TiO2 fiber for superhydrophobic coatings. TiO2 could be uniformly distributed into PDMS, forming a hierarchical micro/nano structure on the surface of the substrate. The contact angle of the superhydrophobic coating could reach as high as 155°. The superhydrophobic coating possessed good self-cleaning performance, corrosion resistance, and durability. It was found that gravity-driven oil–water separation was achieved using stainless steel mesh coated with the PDMS/TiO2 coating. More importantly, the coated filter paper could not only separate oil and pure water but also corrosive solutions, including the salt, acid, and alkali solution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

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9 pages, 1827 KiB  
Article
Effect of Microplastics on the Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Synthetic Piggery Digestate by Microalgae
by Xiaoai Lin, Longzao Luo, Zhitong Mao, Huimin Wang, Shiyu Chu, Hui Wang and Shuang Luo
Polymers 2022, 14(20), 4349; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14204349 - 15 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1652
Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) have been proven to be one of the major threats to the wastewater treatment system. However, the impact of MPs on microalgae-based wastewater treatment technology are still unknown. In this study, effects of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) [...] Read more.
Microplastics (MPs) have been proven to be one of the major threats to the wastewater treatment system. However, the impact of MPs on microalgae-based wastewater treatment technology are still unknown. In this study, effects of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) on the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from synthetic piggery digestate by microalgae were investigated. Results show that the effect of PVC particle size on the growth of microalgae was significant. The effects of PVC content, PP particle size and content, PET particle size and content on the growth of microalgae were all not significant. The removal of ammonia nitrogen by microalgae was influenced significantly by PVC particle size and content, PP particle size and content, the effects of PET particle size and content on the removal of ammonia nitrogen were all not significant. The effects of particle size and content for three MPs on the removal of total phosphorus were all significant. Microalgae cells were bound together after being adsorbed by MPs, which increased the secretion of extracellular polymers and influenced the removal of ammonia nitrogen and total phosphorus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

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9 pages, 2745 KiB  
Communication
Highly Permeable Sulfonated Graphene-Based Composite Membranes for Electrochemically Enhanced Nanofiltration
by Junjie Wang, Mingyu Li and Gaoliang Wei
Polymers 2022, 14(15), 3068; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14153068 - 29 Jul 2022
Viewed by 1165
Abstract
A sulfophenyl-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (SrGO) membrane is prepared. The SrGO membranes have a high charge density in water and could provide many atomically smooth nanochannels, because of their strong ionized-SO3H groups and low oxygen content. Therefore, the SrGO membranes have [...] Read more.
A sulfophenyl-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (SrGO) membrane is prepared. The SrGO membranes have a high charge density in water and could provide many atomically smooth nanochannels, because of their strong ionized-SO3H groups and low oxygen content. Therefore, the SrGO membranes have an excellent performance in terms of high permeance and high rejection ability. The permeance of SrGO membranes could be up to 118.2 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, which is 7.6 times higher than that of GO membrane (15.5 L m−2 h−1 bar−1). Benefiting from their good electrical conductivity, the SrGO membranes could also function as an electrode and demonstrate a significantly increased rejection toward negatively charged molecules and positively charged heavy metal ions such as Cu2+, Cr3+ and Cd2+, if given an appropriate negative potential. The rejection ratios of these metal ions can be increased from <20% at 0 V to >99% at 2.0 V. This is attributed to the enhanced electrostatic repulsion between the SrGO membrane and the like-charged molecules, and the increased electrostatic adsorption and electrochemical reduction in these heavy metal ions on the membranes. This study is expected to contribute to efficient water treatment and the advance of graphene-based membranes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue

Multifunctional Polymers Used in Agricultural Application and Environmental Treatment

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