Preparation of magnetic chitosan for mercury removal from polluted water had been conducted. Magnetic particles (Fe3O4) were isolated from local iron sand to provide magnetic properties of chitosan. Glutaraldehyde was used as crosslinking agent of chitosan. The obtained magnetic chitosan was characterized by using FTIR, TGA, DSC, XRD, and SEM. Adsorption experiments were conducted with various contact time, pH and initial concentration of mercury. The results showed glutaraldehyde and Fe3O4 decreased crystallinity of chitosan. Low crystallinity of polymer is favorable for adsorption due to the high accessibility of adsorbate to reach active sites of adsorbent. FTIR and SEM confirmed the formation of magnetic chitosan. Based on correlation coefficient (R2) values, the adsorption mercury by magnetic chitosan fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models.

The preparation and characterization of cellulose acetate from cotton was conducted in this study. Cotton was hydrolyzed using various concentrations of sulfuric acid (10, 20, 30 and 40%). The bleaching process was performed by using H₂O₂ solution. The acetylation process was conducted using acetic acid solution. The obtained cellulose acetate was then characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) in order to observe the functional groups, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to examine the surface morphology and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to observe the crystallinity of cellulose acetate. The results of FTIR analysis confirmed the formation of cellulose acetate. SEM images showed the irregular sizes of cellulose acetate. XRD patterns exhibited that the acetylation process increased the crystallinity of cellulose.

Polymeric materials are used for personal protective equipment (PPE), which is mandatory for clinicians to use when handling coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. The development of diagnostic tools and vaccines for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is also dependent on polymer technology. This current report aims to provide readers with the trend of polymer research regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, by employing bibliometric analysis. A literature search on the Scopus database (31 January 2022) was carried out using predetermined terms. Using Scopus database features, the publications were filtered based on the year of publication (2020–2022), types of articles (original research and review), and language (English). The metadata were extracted in a CSV (.csv) file, to be later used in VOSviewer software. The data were presented in a table, graph, and network visualization. As many as 512 publications were included, consisting of 66.4% original research articles and 33.6% review articles. Most of the publications were written by authors whose affiliation was in the United States (n = 118, 23%) and covering the Materials Science subject area (n = 142, 27.7%). The Ministry of Education of China was the most productive organization, publishing 11 articles. The National Science Foundation of China was the top funding source, supporting 45 publications. Heinz C. Schröder was the most prolific author, publishing nine articles. Science of the Total Environment was the leading journal publishing the included studies. The trend of polymer technology related to COVID-19 mostly covers PPE and waste-management themes. The use of polymer technology as a delivery system for the anti-SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 vaccine is also among the frequently researched areas. We encourage more research in the field of polymer technology be carried out, to overcome the global pandemic.