Materials & Design (Sep 2017)

Cotton aerogels and cotton-cellulose aerogels from environmental waste for oil spillage cleanup

  • Hanlin Cheng,
  • Bowen Gu,
  • Mark P. Pennefather,
  • Thanh X. Nguyen,
  • Nhan Phan-Thien,
  • Hai M. Duong

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 130
pp. 452 – 458

Abstract

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For the first time, successful fabrication of the cotton aerogels and cotton-cellulose aerogels is achieved using recycled fibers from environmental waste for oil absorption. The pure cotton and cotton-cellulose aerogels are obtained using a cost-effective mixing-blending method with polyamide-epichlorohydrin as strengthening additives. The obtained aerogels are silanized using methyltrimethoxysilane via a facile chemical vapor deposition to endow aerogels with hydrophobic surface. Effects of fiber concentrations and cotton-to-cellulose mass ratio on oil absorption performance in various solvents are also investigated. The cotton aerogel with an initial concentration of 0.25wt% presents the highest oil absorption capacity over 100gg−1. Besides, the cotton/cellulose aerogels also demonstrate good absorption capacity in different pollutant organics. The absorption kinetics of the aerogels with different cotton concentrations are also investigated using pseudo first-order model. Both equilibrium absorption and absorption kinetics demonstrate cotton/cellulose aerogels as promising materials for oil absorption and environmental pollution treatment. Keywords: Cotton fibers, Cellulose fibers, Aerogel, Oil absorption, Environmental waste