An ultralight and flexible nanofibrillated cellulose/chitosan aerogel for efficient chromium removal: Adsorption-reduction process and mechanism

Wang，Qinyu1; Zuo，Wei1; Tian，Yu1; Kong，Lingchao2; Cai，Guiyuan1; Zhang，Haoran1; Li，Lipin1; Zhang，Jun1

2023-07-01

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138622

Chemosphere   Impact Factor & Quartile

0045-6535

1879-1298

Heavy metals in water are critical global environmental problems. In particular, the anionic heavy metal chromium (Cr) has carcinogenic and genotoxic risks on human health. To this end, an ultralight and flexible nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)/chitosan (CS) aerogel was developed only by freeze-drying combined with physical thermal cross-linking for efficient one step co-removal of Cr(VI) and Cr(III). The maximum adsorption capacity of Cr(VI) and total Cr calculated according to the Langmuir model was 197.33 and 134.12 mg/g, respectively. Even in the presence of competing soluble organics, anions and oil contaminants, the resulting NFC/CS-5 aerogels showed excellent selectivity. The aerogel exhibited outstanding mechanical integrity, remaining intact after 17 compressions in air and underwater. Meanwhile, after 5 adsorption-desorption cycles, the aerogel was easy to regenerate and maintained a high regeneration efficiency of 80.25%. Importantly, self-assembled NFC/CS-5 aerogel filter connected with the peristaltic pump could purify 752 mL of industrial wastewater with Cr(VI) pre-concentration capacity of 49.71 mg/g. XPS and FT-IR verified that electrostatic interactions, reduction and complexation acted as the main driving forces for the adsorption process. Moreover, such aerogel possessed broad application prospects for alleviating heavy metal pollution in agriculture.

Adsorption-reduction Aerogel Chitosan Chromium Nanofibrillated cellulose

English

Others

National Key Research and Development Program of China[2019YFD1100300];National Natural Science Foundation of China[41877396];National Natural Science Foundation of China[52170028];Harbin Institute of Technology[QA202129];

ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY

2-s2.0-85151852662

Scopus

1.State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (SKLUWRE),School of Environment,Harbin Institute of Technology,Harbin,150090,China
2.State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control,School of Environmental Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,China

Wang，Qinyu,Zuo，Wei,Tian，Yu,et al. An ultralight and flexible nanofibrillated cellulose/chitosan aerogel for efficient chromium removal: Adsorption-reduction process and mechanism[J]. Chemosphere,2023,329.

Wang，Qinyu.,Zuo，Wei.,Tian，Yu.,Kong，Lingchao.,Cai，Guiyuan.,...&Zhang，Jun.(2023).An ultralight and flexible nanofibrillated cellulose/chitosan aerogel for efficient chromium removal: Adsorption-reduction process and mechanism.Chemosphere,329.

Wang，Qinyu,et al."An ultralight and flexible nanofibrillated cellulose/chitosan aerogel for efficient chromium removal: Adsorption-reduction process and mechanism".Chemosphere 329(2023).