Magnetic superhydrophobic cellulose nanofibril based aerogel with rope-ladder like structure incorporating both superelasticity and excellent oil absorption

• Published in: Journal of environmental management 2024-05, Vol.358, p.120909-120909, Article 120909
• Main Authors: Miao, Yu, Liang, Yipeng, Wang, Enfu, Dai, Chunping, Ren, Changying, Cao, Yizhong, Zou, Long-Hai, Zhang, Wenbiao, Huang, Jingda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerogel; Magnetic; Oil absorption; Superelasticity; Superhydrophobic
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120909

Achieving an equilibrium between exceptional oil absorption and remarkable elasticity has emerged as a formidable challenge for magnetic porous materials designed for oil absorption. Here, we propose an original, magnetic and superhydrophobic cellulose nanofibril (CNF) based aerogel system with a rope-ladder like skeleton by to greatly improve the issue. Within this system, CNF as the skeleton was combined with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)@Fe3O4 as the magnetic and enhanced component, both methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and acetonitrile-extracted lignin (AEL) as the soft-hard associating constituents. The resultant CNF based aerogel shows a rope-ladder like pore structure to contribute to high elasticity and excellent oil absorption (28.34–61.09 g/g for various oils and organic solvents) under the synergistic effect of Fe3O4@MWCNT, AEL and MTMS, as well as good specific surface area (27.97 m2/g), low density (26.4 mg/cm3). Notably, despite the introduced considerable proportion (0.5 times of mass-CNF) of Fe3O4@MWCNT, the aerogel retained an impressive compression-decompression rate (88%) and the oil absorption efficiency of above 87% for various oils due to the soft-hard associating structure supported by both MTMS and AEL. This study provides a prospective strategy to balance between high elasticity and excellent oil absorption of CNF based aerogel doping inorganic particles. •CNF based aerogels system with a rope-ladder like structure is designed.•The system incorporates both high elasticity and excellent oil absorption.•The rope-ladder like structure is key to the absorption and elasticity of system.•The synergistic effect of MTMS and AEL endows the system with fatigue resistance.