Cellulose aerogels from cellulose–NaOH/PEG solution and comparison with different cellulose contents

Abstract

A green mild NaOH/polyethylene glycol solution was employed to dissolve the cellulose extracted from waste wheat straw. Subsequently combined with the freezing−thawing treatment, regeneration process and freeze drying, the cellulose aerogels with different cellulose contents were fabricated at mass ratios of 1∶100, 3∶100, 5∶100 and 7∶100 cellulose to the solution. Moreover, the influences of cellulose contents on the morphologies, crystal structures, crystallinity indexes, thermal stabilities and pore characteristic parameters of the aerogels were investigated by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and nitrogen adsorption. Meanwhile, the oil adsorption properties of the aerogels with different cellulose contents were also surveyed; besides, for improving lipophilicity, the hydrophobic modifications of trimethylchlorosilane for the aerogels were carried out before the adsorption tests.

Facile Synthesis of Well-Dispersed Superparamagnetic γ-Fe2O3 Nanoparticles Encapsulated in Three-Dimensional Architectures of Cellulose Aerogels and Their Applications for Cr(VI) Removal from Contaminated Water

“…The isolation of cellulose from native wheat straw was carried out by a facile chemical treatment method, which could refer to our previous report. 27 The obtained dried cellulose (1.0 g) was mixed with the 10% aqueous solution of NaOH/PEG-4000 (9:1 wt/wt) with magnetic stirring for 5 h at room temperature to form a 2 wt % homogeneous cellulose solution. Then, the cellulose solutions was frozen at −15 °C for 12 h, and subsequently thawed at room temperature under vigorous stirring for 30 min.…”

Influence of hierarchical porous structures on the mechanical properties of cellulose aerogels

“…The production of regenerated cellulose aerogels is widely developed by physical dissolution and regeneration of cellulose from different solvent media [1,2]. Regenerated cellulose aerogels exhibit poor crystallinity, most often cellulose II [3][4][5], though the only exception was recently reported when zinc chloride tetrahydrate was used as a solvent [6]. The pore size distribution was polydisperse, ranging from mesopores to few hundred nanometers of macropores.…”

Cellulose aerogels based on a green NaOH/PEG solution: Preparation, characterization and influence of molecular weight of PEG

“…Actually, for the cellulose aerogels based on the different PEG molecular weights, the peak shift changes a lot. From the XRD patterns, the three peaks are centered at 12. proportion and the decline in undissolved fiber proportion while increasing the PEG molecular weight [37].…”