Cellulose-based films and membranes: A comprehensive review on preparation and applications

Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer in nature and its application for the preparation of numerous materials is of great interest. Among the various properties of cellulose materials described in the literature, their barrier and transport properties are among the most prominent ones. Therefore, this paper presents an overview of the barrier and transport properties of cellulose flat materials such as membranes and films as well as a description of their structure, preparation methods and application. The novel approach of the article is the statistical evaluation of the membrane efficiency based on the multiplication of the flux and retention factor to the efficiency of other biopolymer membranes. The first part of the work involves an overview of cellulose structure and physico-chemical properties. In the next section, the methods of preparation of cellulose materials with focus on the dissolution-regeneration method and bacterial synthesis are analysed. Furthermore, basic mechanisms of molecule transportation through polymeric materials, describing barrier and transport properties were introduced and assessed. The main part of the article regarding to barrier and transport properties of cellulose based membranes and films highlights gas permeation, vapours separation, dyes, ions and macromolecular compounds separation and two-phases mixtures separation.