Starch-Based Polymer Materials as Advanced Adsorbents for Sustainable Water Treatment: Current Status, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Over the past three decades, chemical and biological water contamination has become a major concern, particularly in the industrialized world. Heavy metals, aromatic compounds, and dyes are among the harmful substances that contribute to water pollution, which jeopardies the human health. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance to locate methods for the cleanup of wastewater that are not genuinely effective. Owing to its non-toxicity, biodegradability, and biocompatibility, starch is a naturally occurring polysaccharide that scientists are looking into as a possible environmentally friendly material for sustainable water remediation. Starch could exhibit significant adsorption capabilities towards pollutants with the substitution of amide, amino, carboxyl, and other functional groups for hydroxyl groups. Starch derivatives may effectively remove contaminants such as oil, organic solvents, pesticides, heavy metals, dyes, and pharmaceutical pollutants by employing adsorption techniques at a rate greater than 90%. The maximal adsorption capacities of starch-based adsorbents for oil and organic solvents, pesticides, heavy metal ions, dyes, and pharmaceuticals are 13,000, 66, 2000, 25,000, and 782 mg/g, respectively. Although starch-based adsorbents have demonstrated a promising future for environmental wastewater treatment, additional research is required to optimize the technique before the starch-based adsorbent can be used in large-scale in situ wastewater treatment.

Emerging environmentally friendly bio-based nanocomposites for the efficient removal of dyes and micropollutants from wastewater by adsorption: a comprehensive review

“…Amylopectin is two to three times as large as amylose, with a molecular weight of 1–2 million daltons. 73,74 Amylopectin is actually the water-soluble component of starch, which makes up around 80% of starch. 75 Starch has many benefits, including its biocompatibility, low cost, availability, and biodegradability.…”

Natural Polysaccharide-Based Hydrogels Used for Dye Removal

“…The literature from the last ten years indicated that grafting and cross-linking of ST and its derivatives (carboxymethylstarch, hydroxypropyl sulfate starch) with various reagents (acrylamide, 2-acrylamido-propanesulphonic acid, polyvinylimidazole) afforded the obtaining of hydrogels based on ST having dye adsorption properties. Furthermore, the integration of different fillers (GO, hydroxyapatite) or magnetic nanoparticles (Fe 3 O 4 ) in chemical structure of hydrogels based on ST allowed the improving of the gel's adsorption capacity (Table 4) [103][104][105].…”

Continuous-Flow System for Methylene Blue Removal Using a Green and Cost-Effective Starch Single-Rod Column

“…The procedure is simple, fast, and inexpensive, and the adsorbent materials are abundant and easily recyclable [3,6]. Various adsorbents have been employed for MB removal, such as magsorbents [7,8], carbon-based adsorbents [9], hydrogels [10], and starch-based adsorbents [8,11]. Recently, the application of eco-friendly and low-cost adsorbents for MB removal has been reported [12][13][14].…”