A Universal Strategy for Constructing Robust and Antifouling Cellulose Nanocrystal Coating

Abstract

Super‐hydrophilic cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) hold great potential in fabricating antifouling surfaces based on their high‐water binding affinity. However, integrating CNCs as a robust surface coating on substrate still remains a challenge due to its limited surface adhesion property. Herein, inspired by marine bio‐adhesive strategy, a facile yet universal surface coating method is developed for tightly anchoring CNCs on various substrates with an intermediate adhesive layer composed of tannic acid (TA)/polyethylenimine (PEI)/vanadium(V). Introducing V3+ ions in the assembly process significantly reduces the roughness of the TA/PEI/V bio‐glue layer via coordination chemistry, thus achieving a CNCs coating with a highly‐dense structure and outstandingly low root‐mean‐square roughness (≈2 nm). The super‐hydrophilic CNCs coating exhibits universal and outstanding antifouling properties in inhibiting oil adhesion, protein adsorption or cell attachment, and maintaining its structural integrity and wettability over 100 friction cycles. Additionally, the CNCs‐coated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane shows an ultra‐high water flux over 6000 L m–2 h–1 bar–1 and achieves nearly 100% permeating flux recovery ratio for separation of toluene‐in‐water emulsion containing various foulants. This study demonstrates a universal coating method to settle the long‐standing challenge of robust integration of rigid materials to various substrates for broad engineering and environmental applications.

2D Nano-Mica Sheets Assembled Membranes for High-Efficiency Oil/Water Separation

“…The flux range of NCM for SDS-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions (soya-bean oil, mineral oil and pump oil) is 560–720 L∙m −2 ∙h −1 ·bar −1 . The flux difference between the three emulsions is attributed to the different viscosity of oils [ 38 , 39 ]. The oil removal rate of NCM for all surfactant stabilized oil-in-water emulsions is close to 100% (99.7% for soybean oil, 99.5% for pump oil, and 99.5% for mineral oil), and the NCM has outstanding oil-water separation performance for SDS-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions.…”

Probing and Manipulating Noncovalent Interactions in Functional Polymeric Systems

“…(d) Film of TA/PEI/V 3+ complexes serves as an adhesive layer for the deposition of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) toward an antifouling coating. Reproduced with permission from ref . Copyright 2021 John Wiley & Sons.…”

Antifouling Electrochemical Biosensor Based on Conductive Hydrogel of DNA Scaffold for Ultrasensitive Detection of ATP

“…In the past decades, people have explored the construction of various antifouling interfaces, including physical, chemical, and biological antifouling . Physical antifouling is mainly based on the design of hierarchical porous structure to reduce the adhesion of biological pollutants due to the structural limitation of the interface. , Chemical antifouling is mainly achieved by introducing antifouling materials, such as polyethylene glycol, amphoteric ion betaine sulfonate, bovine serum albumin, cellulose nanocrystals, and peptides. − However, the synthesis and assembly of these materials on the sensor surface is complex, and most of the antipollution materials have poor electrical conductivity, resulting in high impedance on the electrode surface, which reduces the sensitivity of the biosensors. Therefore, introducing conductive polymers to modify the electrode together with antipollution materials has become the research hotspot in the construction of biosensors.…”

“…16 mainly based on the design of hierarchical porous structure to reduce the adhesion of biological pollutants due to the structural limitation of the interface. 17,18 Chemical antifouling is mainly achieved by introducing antifouling materials, such as polyethylene glycol, 19 amphoteric ion betaine sulfonate, 20 bovine serum albumin, 21 cellulose nanocrystals, 22 and peptides. 23−25 However, the synthesis and assembly of these materials on the sensor surface is complex, and most of the antipollution materials have poor electrical conductivity, resulting in high impedance on the electrode surface, which reduces the sensitivity of the biosensors.…”