Robust Superhydrophobic Cellulose Nanofiber Aerogel for Multifunctional Environmental Applications

Abstract

The fabrication of superadsorbent for dye adsorption is a hot research area at present. However, the development of low-cost and highly efficient superadsorbents against toxic textile dyes is still a big challenge. Here, we fabricated hydrophobic cellulose nanofiber aerogels from cellulose nanofibers through an eco-friendly silanization reaction in liquid phase, which is an extremely efficient, rapid, cheap, and environmentally friendly procedure. Moreover, the demonstrated eco-friendly silanization technique is easy to commercialize at the industrial level. Most of the works that have reported on the hydrophobic cellulose nanofiber aerogels explored their use for the elimination of oil from water. The key novelty of the present work is that the demonstrated hydrophobic cellulose nanofibers aerogels could serve as superadsorbents against toxic textile dyes such as crystal violet dye from water and insulating materials for building applications. Here, we make use of the possible hydrophobic interactions between silane-modified cellulose nanofiber aerogel and crystal violet dye for the removal of the crystal violet dye from water. With a 10 mg/L of crystal violet (CV) aqueous solution, the silane-modified cellulose nanofiber aerogel showed a high adsorption capacity value of 150 mg/g of the aerogel. The reason for this adsorption value was due to the short-range hydrophobic interaction between the silane-modified cellulose nanofiber aerogel and the hydrophobic domains in crystal violet dye molecules. Additionally, the fabricated silane-modified cellulose nanofiber hydrophobic aerogels exhibited a lower thermal conductivity value of 0.037 W·m−1 K−1, which was comparable to and lower than the commercial insulators such as mineral wools (0.040 W·m−1 K−1) and polystyrene foams (0.035 W·m−1 K−1). We firmly believe that the demonstrated silane-modified cellulose nanofiber aerogel could yield an eco-friendly adsorbent that is agreeable to adsorbing toxic crystal violet dyes from water as well as active building thermal insulators.

Chitosan-GPTMS-Silica Hybrid Mesoporous Aerogels for Bone Tissue Engineering

“…Moreover, their characteristic 3D open network structure facilitates the access for external fluids, which allows a controlled interaction with internal active surfaces and/or encapsulated secondary phases. Due to its versatility, these type of materials have been proposed for very different applications, such as catalysis [4], CO 2 capture [7], oil-water separation [8], drug delivery and medicine [9]. In this context, a well-diversified collection of biopolymers has been considered for the preparation of bio-aerogels, including collagen [10], gelatin [11], whey proteins [12], etc.…”

Fabrication and Application of Carboxymethyl Cellulose-Carbon Nanotube Aerogels

“…Conventional adsorption materials, such as polypropylene fibers and activated carbon, are non-biodegradable and difficult to recycle after use [29,30]. Cellulose aerogels have porous network structures and abundant raw materials reserves, which have great application potential in the field of adsorbent materials [31]. Three liquids with different viscosity at room temperature, DMAc (0.92 mPa∙s), PEG-200 (22.3 mPa∙s) and Glycerol (56 mPa∙s) were selected to investigate the adsorption capacities of CMC aerogel and CMC/CNTs aerogels.…”

Biorefinery Approach for Aerogels

“…Hexagonal copper (II) sulphide was deposited onto cellulose using a photoinitiated reaction retaining good capacity after 5 reuse cycles with an initial value of 59 mg/g for methylene blue [209]. The silane modified CNF foams showed a high adsorption capacity for crystal violet dye with a value of 150 mg/g [210]. Zeolitic imidazolate framework was used for the preparation of a hybrid metalorganic aerogel based on cellulose for high adsorption (up to 617 mg/g) of methyl orange dye that can retain its adsorption capacity above 90% after five adsorption-desorption cycles [211].…”