Natural cellulose as a solution to remediate aldehyde volatile organic compounds in air pollution

Aldehydes are commonly encountered in VOCs released to the atmosphere from a variety of anthropogenic sources that seriously aggravate the environmental pollution. In Ecuador, VOCs present in air pollution are an important inductor for several respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. Based on the increasing interest in developing sustainable and environmentally friendly materials for the decontamination of VOC-polluted air, cellulose has emerged as one possible candidate, but there is a lack of understanding of the physico-chemical properties affecting the adsorption of VOCs, and the effect of the extraction source on these intrinsic features. The present study focused on the evaluation of unmodified cellulose fibers extracted from natural sources of Ecuador as potential VOC decontaminants. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) adsorption measurements, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods were used to characterize the physico-chemical properties of the isolated fibers. Several research works suggest that amine-functionalized micro- and nano-materials are suitable agents for the capture of VOCs. Surface modifications of the natural fiber F28 with polyethylenimine (PEI) coating were performed to prove enhanced adsorption effectiveness. Gas chromatography (GC) assays demonstrated that unmodified cellulose fibers adsorbed aldehyde VOCs, like hexanal, reaching up to a 56.42±7.30% reduction. As well, GC effectively proved that electrostatic surface coating of the cellulose sample F28 with small quantities of PEI enhanced its VOC remediation capacities (i.e. 98.12±1.18%). Results demonstrated that the biodiversity extraction source can affect the hexanal vapor capturing properties of isolated fibers, and that these materials, indeed, suppose an environmentally friendly solution for effective remediation of VOCs in polluted air.

• প্রধান লেখক: Bravo Salazar, Robinson Isaac (author)
• বিন্যাস: bachelorThesis
• ভাষা: eng
• প্রকাশিত: 2020
• বিষয়গুলি: Celulosa; Biodiversidad; Descontaminación; Funcionalización amina; Contaminación aérea; Sostenibilidad; Natural cellulose; Biodiversity; Decontamination; Amine-functionalization; Air pollution; Environmental sustainability
• অনলাইন ব্যবহার করুন: http://repositorio.yachaytech.edu.ec/handle/123456789/177