Robust Superhydrophobic Cellulose Nanofiber Aerogel for Multifunctional Environmental Applications.

Hasan M,Bastien Seantier,Yasir Pottathara,Sisanth K S,Abdul H P S,Deepu Gopakumar,Ange Nzihou,Sabu Thomas,Matej Bračič,Vishnu Arumughan,Daniel Pasquini,Samsul Rizal

doi:10.3390/polym11030495

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.

Highlights

Due to the rapid increase in the global population, urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural activities, as well as an excessive application of chemicals, environmental pollution has drastically increased in the last decade [1]
We developed a silane-modified hydrophobic Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) aerogel for the adsorption of crystal violet dyes from water and active building thermal insulators
The hydrophobicity was induced by the successful formation of polysiloxane particles on the surface of the CNF aerogels via silane modification, which resulted in superhydrophobic CNF aerogels with a water contact angle greater than 130◦

Summary

Introduction

Due to the rapid increase in the global population, urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural activities, as well as an excessive application of chemicals, environmental pollution has drastically increased in the last decade [1]. The contamination of ground and surface water with synthetic dyes is a severe environmental hazard, and is a threat to mankind and aquatic life [2,3,4,5]. The release of textile dyes into water bodies can cause issues, but it is harmful to biological organisms and ecology. Textile dyes are mainly chemical compounds that can join themselves to surfaces or objects to impart color. Over 10,000 different commercially available pigments and dyes exist, and more than 7 × 105 tons per year are produced annually [6,7]

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