Aerogels derived from nanocellulose have emerged as attractive absorbents for cleaning up oil spills and organic pollutants due to their lightweight, exceptional absorption capacity, and sustainability. However, the majority of the nanocellulose aerogels based on the bottom-up fabrication process still lack sufficient mechanical robustness because of their disordered architecture with randomly assembled cellulose nanofibrils, which is an obstacle to their practical application as oil absorbents. Herein, we report an effective strategy to create anisotropic cellulose-based wood sponges with a special spring-like lamellar structure directly from natural balsa wood. The selective removal of lignin and hemicelluloses via chemical treatment broke the thin cell walls of natural wood, leading to a lamellar structure with wave-like stacked layers upon freeze-drying. A subsequent silylation reaction allowed the growth of polysiloxane coatings on the skeleton surface. The resulting silylated wood sponge exhibited high mechanical compressibility (reversible compression of 60%) and elastic recovery (∼99% height retention after 100 cycles at 40% strain). The wood sponge showed excellent oil/water absorption selectivity with a high oil absorption capacity of 41 g g–1. Moreover, the absorbed oils can be recovered by simple mechanical squeezing, and the porous sponge maintained a high oil-absorption capacity upon multiple squeezing-absorption cycles, displaying excellent recyclability. Taking advantage of the unidirectional liquid transport of the porous sponge, an oil-collecting device was successfully designed to continuously separate contaminants from water. Such an easy, low-cost, and scalable top-down approach holds great potential for developing effective and reusable oil absorbents for oil/water separation.

Both PK-TURBT and HoL-TURBT might prove to be preferable alternatives to CM-TURBT management of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. PK-TURBT and HoL-TURBT, however, did not demonstrate an obvious advantage over CM-TURBT in tumor recurrence rate.

Fast-growing plantation wood normally possesses some undesirable intrinsic properties, such as dimensional instability, inferior mechanical strength, and flammability, limiting its usage as an engineering material. Herein, we report a green and facile approach for upgrading the low-quality poplar wood via a combined treatment with biomass-derived furfuryl alcohol (FA) and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) acting as a flame-retardant additive. Wood/PFA/ADP composites were prepared by impregnation of the FA precursor solutions into the wood matrix, followed by in situ polymerization upon heating to form a hydrophobic FA resin/ADP network within the wood scaffold. In-depth scanning electron microscopy coupled with enregy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) analyses reveal the wide distribution of the FA resin/ADP complexes inside the cell walls and also in the cell lumens. The incorporation of hydrophobic FA resin into wood results in reduced water uptake and remarkably enhanced dimensional stability, as well as generally improved mechanical properties. The addition of a small amount of ADP greatly enhances the flame retardancy of the modified wood and also effectively suppresses smoke generation during its combustion by reducing the heat-release rate and promoting char formation, as proven by cone calorimetry. The FA resin/ADP complexes increase phosphorus fixation in wood and reduces its leaching into water, suggesting a long-term fire protection of wood in service. Such modified poplar wood with overall enhanced properties could be potentially utilized as a reliable engineering material for structural applications.