ACS polymers AuPub Date : 2025-06-11DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00019
Guilherme Schwingel Henn, Caroline Schmitz, Liliana Berté Fontana, Heloisa Vieceli Nunes Corrêa, Daniel Neutzling Lehn and Claucia Fernanda Volken de Souza*,
{"title":"Water Absorption Capacity and Agricultural Utility of Biopolymer-Based Hydrogels: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis","authors":"Guilherme Schwingel Henn, Caroline Schmitz, Liliana Berté Fontana, Heloisa Vieceli Nunes Corrêa, Daniel Neutzling Lehn and Claucia Fernanda Volken de Souza*, ","doi":"10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00019","url":null,"abstract":"<p >This review aims to elucidate the relationship between hydrogel composition and water absorption capacity, with a focus on biobased hydrogels, the influence of their constituents on water absorption, and their relevance to agricultural applications. The most frequently used biopolymers are cellulose, starch, chitosan/chitin, and alginate, all of which are derivable from agroindustrial waste, offering sustainable and environmentally friendly sourcing. These polymers possess a high amount of hydrophilic functional groups, enhancing their affinity for water and enabling the formation of highly absorbent hydrogels. Cross-linking agents further affect the hydrogel’s swelling capacity by altering the number of available hydrophilic groups. Among them, <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>′-methylenebis(acrylamide) is the most prevalent due to its ability to form stable networks, favoring high water absorption. However, concerns persist regarding their persistence in soil and potential environmental toxicity upon degradation. Citric acid has emerged as a promising alternative, reflecting a shift toward environmentally safer strategies. Beyond water absorption and retention, hydrogels exhibit potential as carriers for fertilizers and bioactive compounds, enabling the controlled release and availability in soil. A few studies included in this review have explored the incorporation of beneficial microorganisms, such as <i>Bacillus thuringiensis</i>, <i>Azospirillum brasilense</i>, and <i>Pseudomonas fluorescens</i>, into hydrogel matrices, offering a clean and effective approach for agricultural enhancement that remains underexplored. This review highlights the connection between hydrogel composition and water absorption properties, identifying ecofriendly alternatives for hydrogel synthesis and applications in agriculture. It also reveals gaps in the development of sustainable, efficient hydrogels that could contribute to more environmentally friendly practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":72049,"journal":{"name":"ACS polymers Au","volume":"5 4","pages":"325–342"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACS polymers AuPub Date : 2025-06-10DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00025
Mohammed G. Kotp, Mohamed Gamal Mohamed*, Pei-Tzu Wang, Ahmed E. Hassan, Ahmed M. Elewa and Shiao-Wei Kuo*,
{"title":"Unlocking the Potential of N,N,N′,N′-Tetraphenylbenzidine Based on Conjugated Microporous Polymers for Rhodamine B Adsorption: A Synergistic Experimental and Density Functional Theory Perspective","authors":"Mohammed G. Kotp, Mohamed Gamal Mohamed*, Pei-Tzu Wang, Ahmed E. Hassan, Ahmed M. Elewa and Shiao-Wei Kuo*, ","doi":"10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00025","url":null,"abstract":"<p >This study presents the synthesis and construction of two innovative conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs), TPBZ-PyT CMP and TPBZ-TPET CMP, which incorporate pyrene (Py) and tetraphenylethene (TPE) subunits, respectively. These subunits are selected for their complementary properties, with the TPE moiety offering enhanced flexibility compared to the more rigid Py structure. The flexibility of TPE is hypothesized to improve the adsorption performance of the CMPs for removing rhodamine B (RhB) dye from aqueous solutions. The TPBZ CMPs were characterized using a suite of techniques, including Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis, SEM, and FTIR. Batch adsorption experiments demonstrated that TPBZ-TPET CMP achieved a remarkable RhB removal efficiency of 49.49% within the first 30 min, reaching 98.72% after 60 min. In comparison, TPBZ-PyT CMP attained a maximum removal efficiency of 53.49% at the 60 min mark. Kinetic studies revealed distinct adsorption mechanisms for the two TPBZ CMPs. The adsorption process for TPBZ-TPET CMP was analyzed using a pseudo-second-order model, showing that chemisorption is the dominant mechanism. Meanwhile, TPBZ-PyT CMP exhibited pseudo-first-order kinetics, suggesting a different rate-limiting step. These findings highlight the critical role of subunit flexibility in designing CMPs for enhanced adsorption performance. The superior efficiency of TPBZ-TPET CMP underscores the potential of flexibility-engineered CMPs in advancing water purification technologies and addressing dye contamination in aquatic environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":72049,"journal":{"name":"ACS polymers Au","volume":"5 4","pages":"379–393"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ACS polymers AuPub Date : 2025-06-03DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00026
Anindita Mondol, Jun Wang, Farhad Ein-Mozaffari and Ehsan Behzadfar*,
{"title":"Investigation of Crystallization Kinetics in Polyhydroxyalkanoates through Hyperthermal Cycles","authors":"Anindita Mondol, Jun Wang, Farhad Ein-Mozaffari and Ehsan Behzadfar*, ","doi":"10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00026","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are emerging, promising sustainable biobased, biodegradable polymers with strong potential to replace conventional plastics in packaging, agricultural, cosmetics, and biomedical applications. In this study, we investigate the crystallization behavior of two key PHA types─polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-<i>co</i>-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV)─under both isothermal and nonisothermal conditions using controlled hyperthermal cycles. Isothermal analyses were performed following rapid hypercooling at 500 °C/min to isolate crystallization kinetics, effectively minimizing interference from the cooling stage. The isothermal data revealed activation energies of 91 kJ/mol for PHB and 139 kJ/mol for PHBV. Hypercooling cycles were also employed to examine nonisothermal crystallization kinetics at cooling rates up to 500 °C/min, mimicking industrial processing speeds. The nonisothermal analysis of PHB and PHBV showed a pronounced decrease in crystallinity with increasing cooling rates. Specifically, PHB’s crystallinity dropped from 48.6 to 10.9%, while that of PHBV fell from 45.9% to near zero, accompanied by the disappearance of exothermic peaks. The isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization behaviors were analyzed using the commonly used modeling, revealing the limited capability of these models in terms of the prediction of the nonisothermal crystallization kinetics from isothermal crystallization data. This study provides novel insights into the thermally driven crystallization mechanisms of PHAs and underscores their sensitivity to processing conditions─critical knowledge for optimizing manufacturing techniques in sustainable polymer applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":72049,"journal":{"name":"ACS polymers Au","volume":"5 4","pages":"394–405"},"PeriodicalIF":6.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acspolymersau.5c00026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144826117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}