Polycaprolactone Composites/Blends and Their Applications Especially in Water Treatment

Abstract

Biodegradable poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) and its composites or blends have received a lot of attention in the last decade because of their potential applications in human life and environmental remediation. Greater efforts have been made to develop biodegradable chemical materials as adsorbents that do not pollute the environment in order to replace traditional materials. Among the numerous types of degradable materials, PCL is currently the most promising, the most popular, and the best material to be developed, and it is referred to as a “green” eco-friendly material. Membranes and adsorbents for water treatment, packaging and compost bags, controlled drug carriers, and biomaterials for tissues such as bone, cartilage, ligament, skeletal muscle, skin, cardiovascular and nerve tissues are just some of the applications of this biodegradable polymer (PCL). The goal of this review is to present a brief overview of PCL, syntheses of PCL, its properties, PCL composites, and PCL blends and to provide a detailed investigation into the utility of PCL/PCL-based adsorbing agents in the removal of dyes/heavy metal ions. Overall, it can be confirmed that PCL blends and composites were found to be significant competitors to other well-known adsorbents in the treatment of wastewaters, necessitating a thorough investigation of their manufacture.

Keywords

• polycaprolactone
• blend
• composite
• adsorbent
• degradation
• wastewater