The remediation of water pollution, as specially of heavy metal water pollution, is one of the main issues to solve during the XXI century. Heavy metals can enter into the water-ecosystems either natural sources or because of anthropogenic activities as mining, leathering or platting. For example, many places around the world show an acute but natural arsenic contamination of surface and underground waters, as is the case of the north of Chile. In parallel, many industrial or mining activities give rise to a controlled, but continuous, release of heavy metals substances to the environment. (Fig.1).
In a green and circular economy model: i) heavy metals need to be carefully monitored during their extraction and, ii) separated and safely disposed during their use in industry. Also, iii) preventive measurements need to put in place to avoid their entrance into the environment, and finally, iv) if this occurs, remediation actions must be applied to recover them.
Current water treatment technologies fail to retain highly soluble and mobile heavy metals. For that, the development of new membranes able to over-perform the current technology will open the perspective to improve not just the quality of the water used for human consumption, but also the one linked to industries and mines. Thus, the main objective of INDESMOF-RISE action is to improve and exchange interdisciplinary knowledge on membranes and filters based on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Deep Eutectic Solvents. The composite membrane and filtering devices will be applied for the selective capture of heavy metals from different water sources. If INDESMOF action achieves the assembly of tailorable membrane technology, the direct benefits for the society would be evident. First by generating clean drinkable water, and second, by reducing the toxicity and increasing the quality of the surrounding natural environment.
A consortium with such expertise is put together to undertake an integrative and concerted effort to provide the fundamental innovations and breakthroughs that are needed to fabricate and understand the underpinning processes occurring in new sorbent materials, and in the membranes and filters designed from them. In addition, a key goal will be to assemble and shape the active sorbents as filters and membranes able to function efficiently for heavy metals recovery and separation. All these scientific efforts have been complemented with training, communication and dissemination plans that assure the training of young researches, the sharing of knowledge and technology to the scientific community and society, as well as the possibility to translate the project results in patentable technologies.
