This
study explores the use of silica-coated bacterial nanocellulose
(BC) scaffolds with bulk macroscopic yet nanometric internal pores/structures
as functional supports for high surface area titania aerogel photocatalysts
to design flexible, self-standing, porous, and recyclable BC@SiO2–TiO2 hybrid organic–inorganic aerogel
membranes for effective in-flow photo-assisted removal of organic
pollutants. The hybrid aerogels were prepared by sequential sol–gel
deposition of the SiO2 layer over BC, followed by coating
of the resulting BC@SiO2 membranes with a porous titania
aerogel overlayer of high surface area using epoxide-driven gelation,
hydrothermal crystallization, and subsequent supercritical drying.
The silica interlayer between the nanocellulose biopolymer scaffold
and the titania photocatalyst was found to greatly influence the structure
and composition, particularly the TiO2 loading, of the
prepared hybrid aerogel membranes, allowing the development of photochemically
stable aerogel materials with increased surface area/pore volume and
higher photocatalytic activity. The optimized BC@SiO2–TiO2 hybrid aerogel showed up to 12 times faster in-flow photocatalytic
removal of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution in comparison
with bare BC/TiO2 aerogels and outperformed most of the
supported-titania materials reported earlier. Moreover, the developed
hybrid aerogels were successfully employed to remove sertraline drug,
a model emergent contaminant, from aqueous solution, thus further
demonstrating their potential for water purification.
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