Propriedades físicas de membranas de quitosana

Abstract

The activities, from exploration to exportation, associated with petroleum, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons and their derivatives involve great environmental risks, given the possibility of contamination of the air, the soil and the water by a myriad of highly polluting organic compounds. The solution most frequently applied for solving the problems arising from the pollution caused by spills of the derivatives of petroleum is the utilization of dispersing, coagulant chemical substances and/or the mechanical removal of the oil, which are of little effectiveness and high cost. An attractive alternative is the bioremediation, which consists of the utilization of microorganisms immobilized in biodegradable matrices or their products capable of degrading the petroleum. Matrices of chitosan membranes and films, pure or with microorganisms immobilized are being utilized as alternatives for several kinds of applications, especially as adsorbent of water polluters. The study of the physical properties of these matrices is therefore essential for the development of products that combine not only the efficiency of the process of bioremediation but that are also resistant to the various applications. In this work were made experiments of thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy with Fourier transform, scanning electron microscopy, dielectric constant and uniaxial stress of chitosan membranes prepared by the method of fast evaporation at temperatures of the order 94 °C and the results were compared with those obtained with membranes prepared by the method of slow evaporation previously obtained.