Bio-based polymer offers a sustainable solution to ‘forever chemical’ cleanup
University of Bath
Researchers at the University of Bath have discovered a renewable, bio-based polymer membrane capable of efficiently capturing toxic ‘forever chemicals’ from water, offering a potential new route to more sustainable water treatment.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a member of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) family and once commonly used in non-stick coatings, has now been widely detected in water sources worldwide. High levels of exposure have been linked to cancers, hormone disruption and immune system suppression, with governments around the world taking action to protect people and the environment.
Unlike many conventional water treatment materials that require frequent replacement or generate secondary waste, the new bio-based membrane can trap and hold over 94% of PFOA from water. It can later be treated with heat to remove the trapped pollutants, allowing the polymer to be reused and reprocessed into a new membrane.
A water-activated tightening net
The novel membrane is made from a network of nanofibres that are hundreds of times thinner than the width of a human hair. When placed in water, these nanofibres absorb moisture and swell, acting like a tightening net to trap and hold the pollutants.
Dr Xiang Ding, from the Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST) at the University of Bath and the study’s post-doctoral researcher and lead author, said: “What really surprised us was how this material responds when it meets water.
“Traditional nylon materials, like Nylon 6 or Nylon 66, barely change, but our bio-based nanofibres structurally reorganise themselves and tighten. This feature gives them a remarkable ability to trap stubborn PFAS pollutants right inside the polymer network, and quickly!”
Rapid, reliable and reusable
‘Forever chemical’ pollution is notoriously hard to treat. Current clean-up methods that use electricity, sunlight or microbes to break down PFOA can be expensive and difficult to use at scale. More conventional treatment methods, such as activated carbon or ion-exchange resins, can remove PFAS but often require frequent replacement or complex regeneration processes.
This water-activated trapping mechanism works rapidly, capturing up to half of the PFOA present in an hour and retaining it even after washing. The researchers also discovered that the membrane can be regenerated through a heating and re-spinning process, unlocking a reprocess-recycling ability that recovers up to 93% of its original adsorption capacity.
Dr Ding added: “By using renewable, furan-based building blocks instead of fossil-derived materials, we’ve shown that high-performance PFAS removal can be combined with more sustainable polymer design.”
This study provides a new example of bio-based membranes capable of removing PFOA from water. The team, which includes Dr Hannah Leese, Professor Matthew Davidson and Dr Carmelo Herdes, now aims to explore scaling up the technology for real-world testing, broadening its application to capture other PFAS chemicals and further optimising the regeneration process.
Their findings pave the way for a new class of polymer membranes to serve as a practical, circular, and sustainable solution for tackling PFAS contamination and advancing sustainable water treatment worldwide.
This work was supported by the Research England Development Fund through the Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST), the EPSRC Catalysis Hub grant, and the University of Bath.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Images are available at: https://tinyurl.com/47hvu6y6
The research paper is available to access at: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c22145
For more information, please contact Sarah Baker-Gaunt at the University of Bath Press Office on press@bath.ac.uk
About the University of Bath
The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities, recognised for high-impact research, excellence in education, an outstanding student experience and strong graduate prospects.
- We are ranked among the top 10% of universities globally, placing 132nd in the QS World University Rankings 2026.
- We are ranked in the top 10 in all of the UK’s major university guides.
- The University achieved a triple Gold award in the last Teaching Excellence Framework 2023, the highest awards possible, for both the overall assessment and for student outcomes and student experience. The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a national scheme run by the Office for Students (OfS).
- We are The Times and The Sunday Times Sport University of the Year 2026.
Research at Bath is shaping a better future through innovation in sustainability, health, and digital technologies. Find out all about our Research with Impact: http://bit.ly/3ISz1Wu
University of Bath
Researchers at the University of Bath have discovered a renewable, bio-based polymer membrane capable of efficiently capturing toxic ‘forever chemicals’ from water, offering a potential new route to more sustainable water treatment.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a member of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) family and once commonly used in non-stick coatings, has now been widely detected in water sources worldwide. High levels of exposure have been linked to cancers, hormone disruption and immune system suppression, with governments around the world taking action to protect people and the environment.
Unlike many conventional water treatment materials that require frequent replacement or generate secondary waste, the new bio-based membrane can trap and hold over 94% of PFOA from water. It can later be treated with heat to remove the trapped pollutants, allowing the polymer to be reused and reprocessed into a new membrane.
A water-activated tightening net
The novel membrane is made from a network of nanofibres that are hundreds of times thinner than the width of a human hair. When placed in water, these nanofibres absorb moisture and swell, acting like a tightening net to trap and hold the pollutants.
Dr Xiang Ding, from the Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST) at the University of Bath and the study’s post-doctoral researcher and lead author, said: “What really surprised us was how this material responds when it meets water.
“Traditional nylon materials, like Nylon 6 or Nylon 66, barely change, but our bio-based nanofibres structurally reorganise themselves and tighten. This feature gives them a remarkable ability to trap stubborn PFAS pollutants right inside the polymer network, and quickly!”
Rapid, reliable and reusable
‘Forever chemical’ pollution is notoriously hard to treat. Current clean-up methods that use electricity, sunlight or microbes to break down PFOA can be expensive and difficult to use at scale. More conventional treatment methods, such as activated carbon or ion-exchange resins, can remove PFAS but often require frequent replacement or complex regeneration processes.
This water-activated trapping mechanism works rapidly, capturing up to half of the PFOA present in an hour and retaining it even after washing. The researchers also discovered that the membrane can be regenerated through a heating and re-spinning process, unlocking a reprocess-recycling ability that recovers up to 93% of its original adsorption capacity.
Dr Ding added: “By using renewable, furan-based building blocks instead of fossil-derived materials, we’ve shown that high-performance PFAS removal can be combined with more sustainable polymer design.”
This study provides a new example of bio-based membranes capable of removing PFOA from water. The team, which includes Dr Hannah Leese, Professor Matthew Davidson and Dr Carmelo Herdes, now aims to explore scaling up the technology for real-world testing, broadening its application to capture other PFAS chemicals and further optimising the regeneration process.
Their findings pave the way for a new class of polymer membranes to serve as a practical, circular, and sustainable solution for tackling PFAS contamination and advancing sustainable water treatment worldwide.
This work was supported by the Research England Development Fund through the Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST), the EPSRC Catalysis Hub grant, and the University of Bath.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Images are available at: https://tinyurl.com/47hvu6y6
The research paper is available to access at: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c22145
For more information, please contact Sarah Baker-Gaunt at the University of Bath Press Office on press@bath.ac.uk
About the University of Bath
The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities, recognised for high-impact research, excellence in education, an outstanding student experience and strong graduate prospects.
- We are ranked among the top 10% of universities globally, placing 132nd in the QS World University Rankings 2026.
- We are ranked in the top 10 in all of the UK’s major university guides.
- The University achieved a triple Gold award in the last Teaching Excellence Framework 2023, the highest awards possible, for both the overall assessment and for student outcomes and student experience. The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a national scheme run by the Office for Students (OfS).
- We are The Times and The Sunday Times Sport University of the Year 2026.
Research at Bath is shaping a better future through innovation in sustainability, health, and digital technologies. Find out all about our Research with Impact: http://bit.ly/3ISz1Wu
Journal
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
DOI
Pathways for the sustainable development of polymeric materials
Higher Education Press
image:
This figure depicts the entire lifecycle of polymeric materials including resource extraction, synthesis, processing, and eventual waste disposal.
view moreCredit: Yu-Zhong Wang
The resource waste and ecological pressure caused by waste polymeric materials have made exploring sustainable development pathways a global consensus. In a opinion article titled “Pathways Toward the Sustainable Development of Polymeric Materials” published in Engineering, Prof. Yu-Zhong Wang from Sichuan University systematically outlines multiple routes for the green development of polymeric materials and provides strategic recommendations for establishing a circular system covering the entire material lifecycle.
The article discusses the topic from two dimensions: resources and the environment. Regarding feedstocks, utilizing renewable biomass resources to synthesize biomass-based polymeric materials can effectively reduce dependence on fossil resources and lower carbon emissions. However, the large-scale application of biomass-based materials faces challenges due to the well-established industrial chain and cost advantages of petroleum-based polymers. The author notes that biomass-based materials must achieve functional substitutability or superiority to promote their widespread adoption. Furthermore, using carbon dioxide as a feedstock for preparing polymeric materials not only contributes to achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals but also helps mitigate fossil resource consumption. Nevertheless, the thermodynamic stability and kinetic inertness of carbon dioxide pose technical challenges for its efficient conversion, necessitating the development of novel, more low-carbon and energy-efficient transformation methods.
Regarding the recycling of waste polymeric materials, the article proposes three fundamental criteria that an ideal recycling method should satisfy:
(1) Waste-to-product volume alignment: To ensure recycled output matches waste volume in quantity and value for closed-loop recycling or upcycling.
(2) Efficiency and sustainability: To achieve high-yield, separable, and fully utilizable products via green management with a low-carbon footprint.
(3) Economic viability: To remain market-competitive without subsidies or policy incentives.
For the design of future recyclable polymers, the article summarizes two main strategies. The first involves designing and synthesizing novel polymers that combine excellent service performance with complete depolymerization capability. The second focuses on modifying existing polymers by introducing small amounts of co-monomer units into the main chain, aiming to maintain or enhance original performance or add new functionalities while endowing the polymer with the ability to fully depolymerize into monomers, thereby enabling closed-loop chemical recycling.
Addressing the challenge of disposing of single-use polymeric materials in scenarios where collection is difficult, the article emphasizes biodegradation as an important supplementary approach. Yu-Zhong Wang first proposed the concept of repeatedly chemically recyclable and biodegradable polymers in 2011, which has gained increasing attention in recent years. The article outlines five conditions that ideal polymers for single-use applications should satisfy: (1) high-yield monomer recovery under mild conditions and repolymerization of these monomers without separation or purification, establishing a closed-loop chemical cycle; (2) complete biodegradation in natural environments such as soil, freshwater, and seawater, and ultimate conversion into carbon dioxide, water or substances harmless to human health and the environment; (3) comparable cost and comprehensive properties to traditional polymeric materials used in the same applications; (4) tunable degradation rate to align service life with disposal; and (5) whenever possible, their monomers are derived from renewable biomass-based feedstocks with sustainable sources, offering lower carbon emissions and environmental superiority.
Furthermore, the article notes that crosslinked polymers constructed through non-covalent interactions and dynamic covalent bonds exhibit dynamic reversibility, endowing them with reprocessability and chemical recyclability. This opens up important new avenues for addressing plastic pollution and waste polymeric material problems.
The sustainable development pathway proposed by Yu-Zhong Wang constructs a green circular system covering the entire material lifecycle from three levels: resource substitution, recycling of end-of-life polymeric materials, and design of new recyclable polymeric materials. This opinion article provides a systematic and instructive framework for the field of polymeric materials to address environmental and resource challenges.
The article, titled “Pathways Toward the Sustainable Development of Polymeric Materials,” was authored by Yu-Zhong Wang. It was published in the journal Engineering. Full text of the open access paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2025.12.031. For more information about Engineering, visit the website at https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/engineering.
Journal
Engineering
Article Title
Pathways Toward the Sustainable Development of Polymeric Materials
No comments:
Post a Comment