Construction of the Cellulose Nanofibers (CNFs) Aerogel Loading TiO2 NPs and Its Application in Disposal of Organic Pollutants

Abstract

Aerogels have been widely used in the adsorption of pollutants because of their large specific surface area. As an environmentally friendly natural polysaccharide, cellulose is a good candidate for the preparation of aerogels due to its wide sources and abundant polar groups. In this paper, an approach to construct cellulose nanofibers aerogels with both the good mechanical property and the high pollutants adsorption capability through chemical crosslinking was explored. On this basis, TiO2 nanoparticles were loaded on the aerogel through the sol-gel method followed by the hydrothermal method, thereby the enriched pollutants in the aerogel could be degraded synchronously. The chemical cross-linker not only helps build the three-dimensional network structure of aerogels, but also provides loading sites for TiO2. The degradation efficiency of pollutants by the TiO2@CNF Aerogel can reach more than 90% after 4 h, and the efficiency is still more than 70% after five cycles. The prepared TiO2@CNF Aerogels have high potential in the field of environmental management, because of the high efficiency of treating organic pollutes and the sustainability of the materials. The work also provides a choice for the functional utilization of cellulose, offering a valuable method to utilize the large amount of cellulose in nature.

Designing Highly Photoactive Hybrid Aerogels for In-Flow Photocatalytic Contaminant Removal Using Silica-Coated Bacterial Nanocellulose Supports

“…The higher values of A (BET) and PV (BJH) for BCST-2, as compared to BC-T, indicate the positive role of SiO 2 as a functional support for the incorporation of mesoporous titania in the hybrid aerogels. Finally, we note that the prepared flexible hybrid BC@SiO 2 /TiO 2 aerogel shows a specific surface area higher than most of the reported cellulose/titania-based aerogels ,− (as shown in Table S2), thus indicating that they are excellent candidates for the proposed photocatalytic applications.…”

Porous Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers Bearing TiO2 Hollow Nanospheres for Supercapacitor Electrodes

“…47 Figure 3e presents the O 1s spectra of CNF-Bare, CNF-5TiO 2 , CNF-10TiO 2 , and CNF-15hTiO 2 . The peak at 530.8 eV corresponds to the O−Ti bond, 48,49 while the higher binding energy at 532.4 eV is the O− C bond, 48 and the peak at 533.4 eV is attributed to the O−C−O bond. 50 Figure 3f shows the Ti 2p spectra, in which the binding energies of Ti 2p 1/2 and Ti 2p 3/2 are 465.2 and 459.5 eV, respectively.…”

Recent advances in the medical applications of hemostatic materials

“…Oxide-based aerogels such as TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , and Al 2 O 3 are used primarily to prevent air and water pollution. Electrically conductive oxide-based aerogels have also been developed 216 , 217 .…”