Mechanistic Insight into the Coagulation Efficiency of Polysaccharide-based Coagulants

Polysaccharides possess the highest industrial capacity for adsorbents that can be useful as eco-friendly materials for water treatment, due to their prevalence [1–3]. Polysaccharides are stereoregular (natural) polymers of monosaccharides (sugars) also referred to as biopolymers. They are unique raw materials because they are inexpensive and widely available in many countries in the world. They possess biological and chemical properties such as non-toxicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, poly-functionality, high chemical reactivity, chirality, chelation and adsorption capacities. The excellent adsorption behaviour of polysaccharides is due to certain properties. These properties include (1) high hydrophilicity due to hydroxyl groups of glucose units; (2) presence of a vast number of functional groups (acetamido, primary amino, and/or hydroxyl groups); (3) high chemical reactivity of these groups; (4) flexible structure of the polymer chain [4]. The development of new products based on polysaccharides is a promising way to overcome the disadvantages of synthetic polymers and a better way of, rationally, using renewable bio-resources. Under environmental conditions, the majority of biopolymers have rather low activity [5], and the primary task in this area is therefore to create a science-based methodology for the synthesis of functional materials from polysaccharide having significant properties that can enhance their utilization on a practical scale. This is expected to open the possibility of a deeper understanding of the nature of intermolecular interactions in aqueous solutions of biopolymers. The optimal choice for a particular technology for engineering of polysaccharides can either be by chemical modification of using polymeric reagents [6] or by preparing composites [7]. A preview in literature [8–11] showed that research in the field of polysaccharide composite materials for water remediation has made some remarkable progress. Considering biocompatibility, a polysaccharide with anticoagulant properties can increase its biocompatibility [12, 13]. Also, polysaccharides coated with