This review presents an overview of methods for preparing chitosan-derived porous materials and discusses their potential applications. This family of materials has garnered significant attention owing to their biocompatibility, nontoxicity, antibacterial properties, and biodegradability, which make them advantageous in a wide range of applications. Although individual porous chitosan-based materials have been widely discussed in the literature, a summary of all available methods for preparing materials based on pure chitosan, along with their structural characterization and potential applications, has not yet been presented. This review discusses five strategies for fabricating porous chitosan materials, i.e., cryogelation, freeze-drying, sol-gel, phase inversion, and extraction of a porogen agent. Each approach is described in detail with examples related to the preparation of chitosan materials. The influence of the fabrication method on the structure of the obtained material is also highlighted herein. Finally, we discuss the potential applications of the considered materials.

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The process of ethanol dehydration via pervaporation was performed using alginate membranes filled with manganese dioxide and a mixed filler consisting of manganese dioxide on magnetite core MnO2@Fe3O4 particles. The crystallization of manganese dioxide on magnetite nanoparticle surface resulted in a better dispersibility of this mixed filler in polymer matrix, with the preservation of the magnetic properties of magnetite. The prepared membranes were characterized by contact angle, degree of swelling and SEM microscopy measurements and correlated with their effectiveness in the pervaporative dehydration of ethanol. The results show a strong relation between filler properties and separation efficiency. The membranes filled with the mixed filler outperformed the membranes containing only neat oxide, exhibiting both higher flux and separation factor. The performance changed depending on filler content; thus, the presence of optimum filler loading was observed for the studied membranes. The best results were obtained for the alginate membrane filled with 7 wt.% of mixed filler MnO2@Fe3O4 particles. For this membrane, the separation factor and flux equalled to 483 and 1.22 kg·m−2·h−1, respectively.

The date of February 19, 2017 has marked the 10 th death anniversary of Prof. Waldemar Dutkiewicz, who was an outstanding pedagogue, organiser of didactic and educational work, great social worker, and above all an eminent scholar. Professor Dutkiewicz died suddenly on February 19, 2007, still with his full creative forces. The professor was born on June 2, 1939 in Rivne, in Volhynia. In the period 1957-1963 he studied at the School of Physical Education in Krakow. He completed his pedagogical studies in 1970 at the Higher School of Pedagogy in Krakow. In 1973 he obtained a doctoral degree in physical education. His doctorate in pedagogy was publicly defended in 1982. At the Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw he received his Doctor of Letters (habilitation) degree in the field of physical education in 1986. By a decision of the President of the Republic of Poland of August 22, 1995 he was awarded the title of Professor. Due to his studies and didactic work the heritage of Professor Dutkiewicz is composed of two parts: auxological and pedagogical.