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Functional Materials in Sustainable Chemistry

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2023) | Viewed by 2265

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Sungai Long, Bandar Sungai Long, Cheras, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia
Interests: cellulose; carbon quantum dots; polymer; membrane

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Built Environment, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur Campus, No. 1, Jalan Menara Gading, UCSI Heights (Taman Connaught), Cheras, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Interests: membrane technology; cellulose; composite thin film

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Guest Editor
School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Malaysia
Interests: ultrafiltration; photocatalysis; adsorption; green synthesis of nanomaterials

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kajang 43000, Malaysia
Interests: waste valorization; wastewater treatment; environmental science

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There has been growing interest in recent years in functional materials across various disciplines such as water and wastewater treatment, renewable energy research, catalytic processes, and pollution controls. Functionalized materials can be used to enhance the functionalities of the materials in increasing the water fluxes in membrane filtration, enhancing the transports of protons in proton-exchange membrane for fuel cell applications, increasing the yields of products in catalytic reactions, minimizing the discharges of harmful contaminants to the environment, etc. The high demand in functional materials has led to the development of functionalized materials through sustainable chemistries, which is beneficial from economic and environmental perspectives.

This Special Issue aims to address the development and application of functional materials with promising performance using sustainable raw materials with wide availability. Moreover, the integration of green synthesis routes and their progresses in producing the functional materials for various applications are greatly welcomed.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Functionalized polymers and their composites;
  • Functionalized nanoparticles and their composites;
  • Functionalized quantum dots and their composites;
  • Production and application of functionalized materials in various fields;
  • Green approaches in synthesizing functional materials.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Ng Law Yong
Dr. Ng Ching Yin
Dr. Lim Ying Pei
Dr. Katrina Shak Pui Yee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • functional material
  • composite
  • nanoparticle
  • quantum dot
  • biomass
  • polymer
  • water
  • wastewater
  • green synthesis
  • sustainable material

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 5637 KiB  
Article
Incorporation of Silver-Doped Graphene Oxide Quantum Dots in Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membrane for Verapamil Removal
by Wan Yee Tay, Law Yong Ng, Ching Yin Ng, Ebrahim Mahmoudi, Ying Pei Lim and Lan Ching Sim
Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15843; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315843 - 28 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1331
Abstract
Verapamil hydrochloride, a calcium channel-blocking agent, is detectable in receiving water bodies and affects the well-being of aquatic organisms. Membrane filtration could be effective in removing such pharmaceutical contaminants. However, limited studies have employed commercial membranes, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), in removing [...] Read more.
Verapamil hydrochloride, a calcium channel-blocking agent, is detectable in receiving water bodies and affects the well-being of aquatic organisms. Membrane filtration could be effective in removing such pharmaceutical contaminants. However, limited studies have employed commercial membranes, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), in removing verapamil from water sources, owing to their low solution fluxes, poor antibacterial properties, and high surface hydrophobicity. Efforts are needed to create the PVDF membrane suitable for removing verapamil from water sources. In this study, PVDF composite membranes incorporated with from 0 to 0.10 wt% silver-doped graphene oxide quantum dots (Ag−GOQD) were evaluated in terms of their morphological structures, elemental composition, surface roughness, hydrophilicity, verapamil rejection capability, anti-fouling, and antibacterial capabilities. The pure PVDF membrane showed the lowest verapamil rejection (73.66 ± 2.45%), highest surface roughness (mean surface roughness, Sa = 123.80 nm), and least hydrophilic membrane surface (contact angle = 79.06 ± 4.53°) when compared to other membranes incorporated with nanocomposites. However, the membrane incorporated with 0.10 wt% Ag−GOQD showed the smoothest and the most hydrophilic membrane surface (Sa = 13.10 nm and contact angle = 53.60 ± 4.75°, respectively), associated with the highest verapamil rejection (96.04 ± 1.82%). A clear inhibition zone was spotted in the agar plate containing the membrane incorporated with Ag−GOQD, showing the antibacterial capability of the membrane. The overall improvement in morphological structures, surface smoothness, surface hydrophilicities, permeabilities, verapamil rejection abilities, and anti-fouling and antibacterial capabilities indicated a great potential to incorporate Ag−GOQD in PVDF membrane fabrication. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Materials in Sustainable Chemistry)
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