Ricerc@Sapienza

In this study, the feasibility of giving added value to spent yerba mate residues by manufacturing thermoplastic composites, and their potential benefits, is investigated. Experimental tests performed on yerba mate residues demonstrated that such residue, after a simple extraction procedure by water/ethanol solution, showed an acceptable level of interfacial compatibility with polyolefins.

Yerba mate (Ilex paraguarensis, YM) was used as biomaterial for the removal of anionic and cationic compounds from wastewater. Chromium hexavalent Cr(VI), Remazol brilliant blue (RBB) and methylene blue (MB) were selected as pollutants. A calcination step was performed after the washing and drying steps to evaluate its effectiveness at increasing the adsorption capacity of the solid. Both YM and calcinated YM (CYM) were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis.