Cellulose: A smart material for water purifi cation

Poor water quality is a great threat to human health. Drinking water contains various dissolved salts that are partially precipitated in the form of sediment, which aff ects the operation of distillation. Th is motivates the scientifi c community to formulate and design newer functional materials that can remove the contaminants for wastewater remediation. Cellulose is the most abundantly found material in nature, off ering the promising properties, such as great mechanical strength, biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, relative thermostabilization, high sorption capacity, and alterable optical appearance. “Smart” materials based on cellulose show intelligent behaviors in response to stimuli in the vicinity, thus enabling them to be applied in many fi elds. Cellulose acetate (CA) membranes have been used for reverse osmosis membranes. Functionalized CA/silica composite nanofi brous membranes prepared by combining sol-gel and electro-spinning methods have been used to remove Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions. Also, ion exchange cellulose fi bers have been used to purify water. Polymer-cellulose nanocomposite membranes have also been widely used for water purifi cation processes.