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A simple one-step and homogeneous synthesis method of dicarboxyl cellulose for the flocculant application is developed via Schiff base route using the cellulose from Phyllostachys heterocycla. The bamboo pulp cellulose is dissolved in NaOH–urea solution and oxidized as dialdehyde cellulose by NaIO4, which is continuously reacted with the residual urea and NaOH in the original reaction system to synthesize dicarboxyl cellulose. This one-step method greatly reduces the complexity and heterogeneity of the traditional two-step synthesis procedure, and avoids greatly the environmental pollution caused by the cellulose solvent. The dicarboxyl cellulose is characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, which exhibits an excellent coagulation–flocculation capability to kaolin suspension with a turbidity removal of 99.5%.

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Due to their unique physical and chemical properties, hygrogels have been applied in various industrial and agricultural fields. Biomedicine is another high value-added and attractive area for the application of hydrogels. For this reason, a novel temperature/pH sensitive cellulose based hydrogel was synthesized based on the cellulose from Phyllostachys heterocycla. Its synthesis conditions were optimized, and its loading and release capabilities for model drugs were investigated in detail. The resultant data showed that the synthesized hydrogel exhibited the highest swelling ratio at 37 °C and pH 7.4, corresponding to the temperature and pH of the human intestinal environment. The hydrogel held excellent load performance for model drug MB and an obvious temperature dependence at 37 °C (body temperature of human) when the model drug was released from it. These positive results suggest that the synthesized temperature/pH sensitive cellulose-based hydrogel has a great potential for oral drug delivery applications.

Selectivity and antifouling of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes are major challenges in the separation and purification of biological proteins. This work reported that full-coverage spongy poly­(ether sulfone) (PES) ultrafiltration membranes assisted by the self-cross-linking of N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide (HEAA) were fabricated via a phase inversion method at room temperature. The pore structure of the UF membrane from finger-like to coverage of the spongy structure occurred by increasing the content of HEAA, which is beneficial for size-selective separation of biomolecules. The optimized M4 membrane showed a high surface porosity with a uniform pore size of 30 nm, resulting in more than 99% protein rejection rate for immunoglobulin G (IgG) but less than 20% rejection for bovine serum albumin, confirming that the molecular weight cutoff is 100k Da. Furthermore, the fabricated PES composite ultrafiltration membranes showed excellent antifouling performance and flux recovery efficiency for proteins due to the hydrophilic group of HEAA. This study provides an intelligent strategy for fouling prevention and selective isolation of proteins.