Amyloid Fibrils Aerogel for Sustainable Removal of Organic Contaminants from Water

Abstract

Water contamination by organic pollutants is ubiquitous and hence a global concern due to detrimental effects on the environment and human health. Here, it is demonstrated that amyloid fibrils aerogels are ideal adsorbers for removing organic pollutants from water. To this end, amyloid fibrils prepared from β‑lactoglobulin, the major constituent of milk whey protein, are used as building blocks for the fabrication of the aerogels. The adsorption of Bentazone, Bisphenol A, and Ibuprofen, as model pollutants, is evaluated under quasi‐static conditions, without use of energy or pressure. Through adsorption by amyloid fibrils aerogel, excellent removal efficiencies of 92%, 78%, and 98% are demonstrated for Bentazone, Bisphenol A, and Ibuprofen, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum adsorption capacity of amyloid fibrils aerogel for Bentazone, Bisphenol A, and Ibuprofen is 54.2, 50.6, and 69.6 mg g−1, respectively. To shed light on the adsorption equilibrium process, adsorption isotherms, binding constants, saturation limits, and the effect of pH are evaluated. Finally, the regeneration of the aerogel over three consecutive cycles is studied, exhibiting high reusability with no significant changes in its removal performance. These results point at amyloid fibrils aerogels as a sustainable, efficient, and inexpensive technology for alleviating the ubiquitous water contamination by organic pollutants.

Bio-inspired general synthesis of superplastic metal-organic framework aerogels and their applications

“…3b,e,h clearly displays the anisotropic layered structure of Co-MOF, NiMn-MOF and NiCoMn-MOF aerogels, where the adjacent layer spacing change from 22 to 6 μm, 95 to 20 μm and 25 to 6 μm after applying 50% strain to the MOF architecture, respectively. The layer spacing restore to 21 μm for Co-MOF, 90 μm for NiMn-MOF and 23 μm for NiCoMn-MOF after the external force release within 1 s. The above phenomenon is similar to many other superplastic materials like graphene and polymers, 8,27 indicating excellent superplasticity of our MOF aerogels. Next, we demonstrated the potential applications of our superplastic MOF aerogels as a new class of exible electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in seawater.…”

Green Routes for the Development of Chitin/Chitosan Sustainable Hydrogels

“…For example, many toxic heavy metal cations [8] and oxoanions (chromate, arsenite/arsenate) have been captured and immobilized on either cellulose or eggshell-based membranes functionalized with carboxylic acids that can be easily extracted from vegetable and fruit waste [9]. β-lactoglobulin amyloid proteins extracted from milk have been successfully utilized to fabricate membranes that absorb arsenic ions from water [10].…”

Amyloid hybrid membranes for removal of clinical and nuclear radioactive wastewater

“…In 2016, we reported a broadly applicable and highly efficient filtering system made of amyloid-carbon hybrid membranes, 18 which were made of β-lactoglobulin, the major component of whey by-product of the dairy industry, and activated carbon. 19 Initial studies have shown filtering efficacies of three to five orders of magnitude for a broad spectrum of heavy metal ions as well as for numerous other compounds including fluoride, 20 organic pollutants 21 and bacteria. These adsorption-based depth filter membranes were also found to be able to remove model radioactive waste such as uranyl acetate and phosphorus-32.…”