Abstract
The current problem of contamination caused by colored industrial effluents has led to the development of different techniques to remove these species from water. One of them, polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF), has been systematically studied in this mini review, in which research works from 1971 to date were found and analyzed. Dye retention rates of up to 99% were obtained in several cases. In addition, a brief discussion of different parameters, such as pH, interfering salts, type of polymer, dye concentration, and membrane type, and their influence in dye removal is presented. It was concluded from the above that these factors can be adapted depending on the pollutant to be remediated, in order to optimize the process. Finally, theoretical approaches have been used to understand the intermolecular interactions, and development of the studied technique. In this revision, it is possible to observe that molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations, density functional theory calculations, and hybrid neural-genetic algorithms based on an evolutionary approach are the most usual approximations used for this purpose. Herein, there is a detailed discussion about what was carried out in order to contribute to the research development of this important science field.
Highlights
Water pollution is a big concern around the world [1]
It is concluded that the polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) technique is effective in removing ionic dyes from aqueous solutions
Studies reported in the literature adequately expose the functioning of the PEUF technique and the mechanism by which dyes are removed from waters
Summary
Water pollution is a big concern around the world [1]. The problem in industries such as textiles, paper, plastics, leather, food processing and cosmetics is the waste they generate due to their manufacturing processes: they produce large quantities of organic and inorganic pollutants, such as sludge, acids, bases, phenols, etc. [2]. Considering the chemical nature of polymers, as well as their interaction with dyes as a function of different experimental variables (pH, concentration of dye, soluble polymer concentration, the effect of ionic strength, and the type and molecular cut-off size of the UF membrane), the removal of dyes from aqueous solution is evaluated. In this context, during recent decades the polymer assisted ultrafiltration (PEUF) technique has received great attention from the scientific community because it has proven to be efficient in the removal of organic contaminants from wastewaters [21,31,32,33]. This review is focused on the discussion of this technique, as well as the recent advances, and perspectives for future research related to the removal of dyes through the PEUF technique, taking into account experimental and theoretical works
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