Development of a new composite material based on

microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) and polyketone for

water treatment.
Pablo Gonzalez1*, Franck Quero2 and Fernando Valenzuela3
1. Laboratorio de Nanocelulosa y Biomateriales, Facultad de Ciencias físicas y Matemáticas,
Universidad de Chile, Chile.
2. Laboratorio de Nanocelulosa y Biomateriales, Facultad de Ciencias físicas y Matemáticas,
Universidad de Chile, Chile.
3. Laboratorio de Operaciones Unitarias e Hidrometalurgia, Universidad Tecnológica
Metropolitana, Chile.

ABSTRACT
Water is the most important resource in our planet, however, the industrial process such as mining,
textile, pharmaceutics, etc. produces an important volume of wastes such as heavy metals ions,
dyes and organic compounds that affect the environment but also the health of the population.
For this reason, its necessary treat the water to eliminate this contaminant. Today exist a great
variety of treatments for this problematic, for example: ion-exchange, electrochemical methods,
chemical precipitation, etc. However, these treatments have many disadvantages, from the
viewpoint of the materials for the removal of contaminants.
On the other hand, the membrane technology is an excellent alternative for this purpose, because
this have high selectivity, easy scale-up, and simple design. However, the material for the
fabrication of the membranes requires chemical reactions, solvents and high energy and money
costs.
An alternative is the use of renewables materials, such is the case of cellulose, because this the most
abundant natural polymer in the planet, moreover, is renewable, inexpensive. From this material its
possible obtain microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) that have excellent properties for their use in the
treatment of water through membranes.
However, microfibrillated cellulose present disadvantages because there has a low removal
capacity. A solution for this problematic is the development of composites using a polymer that
permit the introduction of new functional groups that uptake the contaminants from water
moreover improving the mechanical properties of microfibrillated cellulose.
The polymer to use is the polyketone, because is a new material with excellent chemical and
thermal properties, and his functionalization permit the introduction of a great variety of functional
groups in their backbone. This permit the development of polymer with high uptake capacity of
contaminants from water.

*Corresponding author: Laboratorio de Nanocelulosa y Biomateriales, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas

y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile. Phone: +56 957137856. Email: pgonzalezc@ug.uchile.cl