Plastic pollution of the aquatic environment is a major concern considering the disastrous impact on the environment and on human beings. The significant and continuous increase in the production of plastics causes an enormous amount of plastic waste on the land entering the aquatic environment. Furthermore, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are reported as the main source of microplastic and nanoplastic in the effluents, since they are not properly designed for this purpose. The application of advanced wastewater treatment technologies is mandatory to avoid effluent contamination by plastics. A concrete solution can be represented by membrane technologies as tertiary treatment of effluents in integrated systems for wastewater treatment, in particular, for the plastic particles with a smaller size (< 100 nm). In this review, a survey of the membrane processes applied in the plastic removal is analyzed and critically discussed. From the literature analysis, it was found that the removal of microplastic by membrane technology is still insufficient, and without the use of specially designed approaches, with the exception of membrane bioreactors (MBRs).

Mesoporous TiO2 thin films (MTTFs), thanks to their particularly high surface area, controlled porosity, high flexibility in composition, and surface design, are promising candidates in different application fields such as sensors, self-cleaning coatings, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), photocatalysis, and new-generation solar cells. This chapter is focused on the synthetic and post-synthesis aspects that can affect the TiO2 mesoporous structure and consequently the MTTF properties. In particular, after a brief summary of TiO2 properties, all experimental conditions to prepare MTTFs are reviewed as well as the main characterization techniques employed to study their physicochemical and photocatalytic properties. An overview of the main applications of MTTFs is also proposed, mainly focused on the use of MTTFs in sensors and LIBs.

This work validates a sustainable way to produce customized PVDF membranes, suitable for contactors applications, in which DMSO is employed as nonhazardous solvent, in place of substances of very high concern (SVHC), by a combination of vapor-induced and liquid-induced phase separation (VIPS and LIPS) stages, and without using any chemical additive as pore forming. The experimental results highlight the key role of the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the phase separation processes involved in the control of the surface and transport properties of the PVDF membranes. Namely, combining VIPS and LIPS techniques in a controlled way, allowed to produce symmetric porous membranes with customized rough surface topography (root-mean-square roughness up to 0.67 μm) and hydrophobicity (water contact angle up to 140°) according to a biomimetic behavior as that of lotus leaves surfaces, through an environmental friendly fabrication process. The resulting membranes are characterized by a high porosity (total porosity ≥70%, mean pore size 0.08–0.4 μm), with well interconnected pores, despite no pore former additives were included in the dope solution, making them ideal candidates for application in membrane contactors. The quality of the produced membrane (permeate flux up to 12.1 kgh^1–m^–2 with salt rejection 99.8%) is assessed by MD tests and results showed comparable performance to commercial PVDF membranes having similar mean pore size, porosity and surface roughness, but produced using SVCH solvents.