Biomass-Templated Fabrication of Metallic Materials for Photocatalytic and Bactericidal Applications

Abstract

In this paper, we report a simple, feasible and low-cost method to fabricate self-standing metallic materials using cellulose-based biomass as sacrificial templates. This process involves the impregnation of metallic precursors to the cellulose fibers of biomass templates and the transformation of the precursors to corresponding metals or metal oxides (as well as the removal of the cellulose framework) at an elevated temperature. The structures of the metallic materials as fabricated take the form of architectures of biomass templates (e.g., chromatography paper, medical absorbent cotton, catkins of reed, seed balls of oriental plane, and petals of peach blossom), and the various kinds of metals and metal oxides fabricated with these templates include silver, gold, anatase, cupric oxide, zinc oxide, etc. We have demonstrated photocatalytic and bactericidal applications of such metallic materials, and they should find more applications in electronics, catalysis, energy storage, biomedicine and so on.

Study on the Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Properties of TiO2 Nanoparticles-Coated Cotton Fabrics

“…In recent years, functional finishing of cotton has attracted the greatest attention. Nanomaterials can impart new functional properties to cotton fiber for its applications, such as antimicrobial properties [1], ultraviolet (UV) protection [2,3], superhydrophobicity [4], self-cleaning [5,6,7] and flame retardancy [8].…”

In Situ Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles on Cellulose Fibers Using D-Glucuronic Acid and Its Antibacterial Application

“…Among all the polymer matrices, cellulose has attracted much attention due to the advantages of abundant resources [18,19,20,21] and rich hydroxyls in its molecular structure [22,23]. Recently, methods have been developed for the fabrication of cellulose/AgNP nanocomposites.…”