Ionizing Radiation for Preparation and Functionalization of Membranes and Their Biomedical and Environmental Applications.

The use of ionizing radiation processing technologies has proven to be one of the most versatile ways to prepare a wide range of membranes with specific tailored functionalities, thus enabling them to be used in a variety of industrial, environmental, and biological applications. The general principle of this clean and environmental friendly technique is the use of various types of commercially available high-energy radiation sources, like 60Co, X-ray, and electron beam to initiate energy-controlled processes of free-radical polymerization or copolymerization, leading to the production of functionalized, flexible, structured membranes or to the incorporation of functional groups within a matrix composed by a low-cost polymer film. The present manuscript describes the state of the art of using ionizing radiation for the preparation and functionalization of polymer-based membranes for biomedical and environmental applications.