Reconstruction and functionalization of aerogels by controlling mesoscopic nucleation to greatly enhance macroscopic performance

This work presents a strategy for the mesoscopic engineering of hierarchically structured sodium alginate (SA) aerogels to enhance the macroscopic performance. The strategy was implemented by meso-functionalizing and reorganizing SA aerogels via controlled heterogeneous nucleation, in which microcry...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chinese physics B 2023-03, Vol.32 (3), p.38103-39
Main Authors: Jiao, Chen-Lu, Shao, Guang-Wei, Chen, Yu-Yue, Liu, Xiang-Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aerogel
mesoscopic reconstruction
microcrystalline cellulose
MnO
nanoparticles
sodium alginate
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Summary:This work presents a strategy for the mesoscopic engineering of hierarchically structured sodium alginate (SA) aerogels to enhance the macroscopic performance. The strategy was implemented by meso-functionalizing and reorganizing SA aerogels via controlled heterogeneous nucleation, in which microcrystalline cellulose-manganese dioxide (MCC-MnO 2 ) nano-crystallites worked as template. Due to the short rod-like structure and abundant hydroxyl groups of MCC-MnO 2 , the organized mesostructure of SA aerogels was reconstructed during the assembly of SA molecule chains, which gave rise to a significant enhancement in macroscopic performance of SA areogels. For instance, the functionalized and reconstructed MCC-MnO 2 /SA aerogels acquired a more than 70% increase in mechanical strength with an excellent deformation recovery. Furthermore, an almost double enhancement of removal capacity for metal ions (i.e., Cu 2+ and Pb 2+ ) and organic dyes (i.e., congo red and methylene blue) was obtained for MnO 2 /SA aerogels, with an 87% repossession of the pollutants removal performance after 5 operation cycles.
ISSN:1674-1056
DOI:10.1088/1674-1056/acb912