A simple fabrication of a biodegradable membrane for use in water purification systems is presented in this work. Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and PVP are dissolved in water and crosslinked with citric acid. The presence of glycerol has given immense flexibility and mechanical strength to the membrane. The addition of activated charcoal has enhanced its purification and dye adsorption capabilities at room temperature in dark and light conditions. The polymer semiconductor composites are completely soil degradable within a week and the membrane also exhibits good electrical conductivity when compared to the membrane without charcoal. The addition of glycerol has acted as molecular spacer between polymers composite's monomer backbone that allows good electron mobility of 9.9 cm2 V−1 s−1. The dye adsorption efficiency of the material with two commonly used toxic textile dyes is found to be 100% for methyl orange and up to 57% for Rhodamine B within 3 h. The material shows good dye adsorption efficiency under dark and light conditions with acidic, neutral, and alkaline pH. Salt rejection was also found to increase from 25.3 to 64.4% with applied voltage. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48746.

Glucose oxidase-free polymer composite sensing material, made of polyelectrolytic cellulose derivatives cross-linked by an organic polycarboxylic acid and enhanced by a plasticizer, is reported. The polymer composite is a nontoxic material and is also biodegradable that degrades within 15 days in the soil. The material is extremely flexible and yet resilient in such a way to explicitly fit for application in wearable sensors. Electrochemical analysis of the material for glucose sensing properties with artificial sweat as the electrolyte revealed surprising results. The lowest detection limit observed in chronoamperometric analysis was 0.4 mM of glucose. Impedimetric analysis showed significant drop in impedance at 0.5 mM addition of glucose. The cellulose composite material gets reduced into H 3 O + and H + ions, on addition of glucose, which is confirmed through square wave analysis, chrono-amperometry, impedance and cyclic voltammetry results. The changes in the functional group were also confirmed by FTIR analysis taken before and after the addition of glucose. Results obtained by electrochemical analysis were well correlated with the proposed reaction mechanism. The flexibility and strength of the cellulose composite film was analysed with nano-indenter, it also showed an excellent folding endurance withstanding up to 86960 folds. The biocompatibility nature of the material was also tested with the help of 3T3 fibroblast cells.