A novel application of cellulose aerogel composites from pineapple leaf fibers and cotton waste: Removal of dyes and oil in wastewater

Abstract

In a world where demands for freshwater are ever-growing, wastewater remediation becomes a global concern. Especially, water, which is contaminated by oil, dyes, poses challenges to the management of water resources. The development of innovative processes for wastewater treatment is still a major obstacle. With regard to its fast removal rate and environmental compatibility, cellulose aerogel composites are recently considered as a potential contributor for water remediation. In this study, cellulose aerogel composites are fabricated using the sol-gel method from two-agroindustrial wastes: pineapple leaf fibers and cotton waste fibers in alkali-urea solution followed by freeze-drying. The prepared cellulose aerogel composites are extremely lightweight with a low density (0.053−0.069 g.cm −3 ) and high porosity of nearly 95%. It is worth noting that the mechanical strength of the cellulose aerogel composites is remarkably improved with their Young's modulus increasing by 5-9 times compared to that of the previous aerogel composites using polyvinyl alcohol as a binder. The as-synthesized aerogel composites are directly applied to adsorb cationic methylene blue and exhibit a maximum adsorption uptake of 34.01 g.g -1 .The methyltrimethoxysilane-coated cellulose aerogel composites also show their ability to deal with oil pollution with a maximum oil adsorption capacity of 15.8 g.g −1 within only 20 sec. Besides the oil removal, our developed cellulose aerogel composites have demonstrated their capability in treating dye-contaminated wastewater for the first time based on their evidenced ability to eliminate methylene blue.

Circularity in Materials: A Review on Polymer Composites Made from Agriculture and Textile Waste

“…The composites demonstrated an absorption capacity of 16 times their weight whereas the composite with the highest cotton fiber content showed better adsorption. The developed composite was found promising for removing organic pollutants in water [75]. Gedif and Atalie prepared a composite using waste cotton fabric and unsaturated polyester.…”

Cellulose Structures as a Support or Template for Inorganic Nanostructures and Their Assemblies

“…The sources to produce cellulose aerogels are diverse, but cellulose-originated wastes, especially biomass and textile waste, are of primary interest since they are appropriate for the development of eco-friendly production technologies with the use of renewable feedstocks. Aerogels prepared from cellulose-rich waste are biodegradable, easy to functionalize for different uses, and are inexpensive due to the abundance of raw materials [ 61 ]. Cellulose aerogels have a wide area of potential applications such as particle filters, particle trappers, catalyst supports, and heat insulators [ 62 , 63 ] and have been evaluated for their capability to remove various pollutants from an aqueous medium [ 61 , 64 , 65 ].…”

“…Aerogels prepared from cellulose-rich waste are biodegradable, easy to functionalize for different uses, and are inexpensive due to the abundance of raw materials [ 61 ]. Cellulose aerogels have a wide area of potential applications such as particle filters, particle trappers, catalyst supports, and heat insulators [ 62 , 63 ] and have been evaluated for their capability to remove various pollutants from an aqueous medium [ 61 , 64 , 65 ]. Additionally, the application of cellulose aerogels for oil absorption applications has also been investigated [ 66 ].…”