Chitosan and Cellulose Based Materials for Sustainable Wastewater Remediation

The ubiquitous presence of noxious contaminants and persistent compounds in water matrices makes it undesirable for various applications. Among the diverse materials, abundant biopolymers such as cellulose and chitosan have been extensively utilized due to their versatile properties. Biopolymers are bioinspired materials which can be considered as an effective alternative toward the synthetic polymers that are developed by linking monomers via covalent bond. The versatile characteristics of biopolymers such as environmental friendliness, abundance, affordability, and surface functionality make it highly suitable for the environmental remediation. This chapter emphasizes on cellulose- and chitosan-based materials for the effective removal of persistent organic pollutant environment via diverse treatment strategies. Different wastewater remediation methods such as adsorption, flocculation, coagulation, electrocoagulation, and other advanced oxidation process are elucidated in details. The underlying mechanism of chitosan- and cellulose-based materials toward wastewater remediation is well described. Overall, the cellulose- and chitosan-based materials exhibited phenomenal reusability, easiness in recoverability, and altered optical properties, which makes them highly versatile in environmental remediation.