Chapter 7 - Sustainable membranes with FNMs for biomedical applications

Abstract

In the recent era, membrane technology has grasped the attention of various researchers due to its diversified applications. Such a notable footstep of membrane technology in several processes increases widespread investigation on membrane science and, thereafter, its implementation toward value-added process outcome. One of the promising application areas of membrane science nowadays is its strong correlation with different biomedical processes. Pharmacokinetics, tissue engineering, wearable biohybrid organs, diagnostic devices, and hematology are some of the noteworthy segments, where membrane science has established itself as a ubiquitous technology to implement. However, the most intricacies that are aligning with the membrane separation techniques is its selectivity for the components to be separated, which is primarily manifested by the property of the casting material. In recent era, such properties of these fabricated membranes are modulated through numerous doping technologies during the casting process. One of the much-appreciated processes is doping of functionalized nanomaterials (FNMs), after pyrolitic production of nanomaterials from simulated waste followed by its functionalization, within the primitive membranes’ fabricating material during casting to aid different biomedical applications. Large effective surface area, biocompatibility, antibiofouling behavior, tunable pore structure as well as tunable pore modification and other distinctive chemical properties of the nanomaterials manifest an indigenous mechanism to regulate the property of the primitive substrate material when amalgamated. Thus, properties such as hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, pore size, morphology, selectivity, glass transition temperature, elasticity, etc., can be controlled according to the application specificity of the membrane. Few research studies have revealed that membrane surface hydrophilicity was not directly relevant to the interfacial interaction with nanomaterials. Furthermore, the strength of electrostatic double-layer interaction may significantly increase with the increase of membrane surface zeta potential. However, the intrinsic properties of the nanomaterials depend on their fabrication technology, which is thoroughly discussed in this chapter. Moreover, the present chapter starts with a general discussion on nanomaterials and membranes, necessary to understand the basic interposed chemistry required for the preparation of FNM-doped membrane for different biomedical purposes. As said before, fabrication of FNMs and the doping methods are the most ubiquitous techniques to understand, which actually decides the final efficiency along with the specificity of the membrane technology. Hence, a substantial portion has been devoted to the fabrication science for FNMs and doping methods. Finally, the chapter concludes with some case studies elaborating adopted FNMs doped membrane technology for biomedical applications and how much such FNMs-based technology supersede conventional membrane science.