Bio-inspired and assembled fungal hyphae/carbon nanotubes aerogel for water-oil separation

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based materials have attracted tremendous interest for their high performance in oil separation. However, the preparation of CNT based materials always require harmful and expensive chemicals. Here, a biological assembly route was applied to assemble CNTs onto a fungal hyphae (FH) to produce FH/CNTs composites, followed by pyrolysis to obtain a hydrophobic CNT based aerogel for oil separation, which is a more environmentally friendly process. The as-prepared FH/CNTs-800 aerogel (pyrolyzed at 800 °C) showed hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 143° and high specific surface area (1041.2 m2 g−1). The oil absorption results showed that the as-prepared FH/CNTs aerogels could absorb a wide range of oils with high absorption capacities ranging from 48 to 138 times their own weight. Furthermore, the oil-loaded aerogel was recycled through burning with little reduction in the oil absorption capacity. In addition, FH/CNTs-800 provided a high specific capacitance of 232 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and maintained a capacity retention of 70.62% at 20 A g−1. Therefore, this study offers a simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly bioassembly route for large-scale assembly of CNTs into macroscopic 3D hydrophobic aerogels for highly efficient water-oil separation.

Unveiling the Surface and the Ultrastructure of Palladized Fungal Biotemplates

“…We and other groups have examined numerous examples of the deposition of different classes of NPs on the fungal wall envelope. ,,,− However, it came as a surprise from the TEM analyses that the biohybrid Penicillium sp./Pd-NPs showed the presence of the nanoparticles inside the fungal cell (Figure g,h). The observation of isolated hyphae demonstrated that nanoparticles are internalized by the microorganism forming large agglomerates of Pd-NPs in the cytosol with sizes spanning from 7.0 to 60.0 nm with an average size of 7.7 ± 2.9 nm (see Figure S3 in the SI for more detailed images).…”

Biomass and Industrial Wastes as Resource Materials for Aerogel Preparation: Opportunities, Challenges, and Research Directions

“…Using carbon allotropes, various carbon-based aerogels with different properties could be developed. Traditional carbon aerogels consist of 3D networks of interconnected amorphous carbon. , The most common carbon-based aerogels that have been introduced as novel porous materials are carbon nanotubes (CNT), , graphene, , and carbon nanofibers . Moreover, various types of carbonaceous wastes have been used as raw materials to prepare carbon-based functional materials due to their carbon richness, low cost, and natural abundance.…”

Combination of an Asphalt Stabilizer and a Cellulose–Chitosan Composite Aerogel Used for the Separation of Oil–Water Mixtures Containing Asphalt

“…When separating more complex oil–water mixtures, more complicated problems were encountered. ,,− In the oil–water separation experiment of Cao et al, super-hydrophobic polyurethane sponge embedded with perfluorinated graphene oxide effectively separated the oil–water mixture. However, the separation rate was considerably reduced when filtering the mixture of crude oil and water.…”