Biomimetic Light‐Driven Aerogel Passive Pump for Volatile Organic Pollutant Removal

Abstract

Inspired by the solar-light-driven oxygen transportation in aquatic plants, a biomimetic sustainable light-driven aerogel pump with a surface layer containing black manganese oxide (MnO 2 ) as an optical absorber is developed. The flow intensity of the pumped air is controlled by the pore structure of nanofilbrillated cellulose, urea-modified chitosan, or polymethylsilsesquioxane (PMSQ) aerogels. The MnO 2 -induced photothermal conversion drives both the passive gas flow and the catalytic degradation of volatile organic pollutants. All investigated aerogels demonstrate superior pumping compared to benchmarked Knudsen pump systems, but the inorganic PMSQ aerogels provide the highest flexibility in terms of the input power and photothermal degradation activity. Aerogel light-driven multifunctional gas pumps offer a broad future application potential for gas-sensing devices, air-quality mapping, and air quality control systems.

Thermosensitive Microfibril Cellulose/MnO2 Membrane: Dual Network Structure, Photothermal Smart Modulation for Switchable Emulsion Separation

“…The peaks located at 530, 400, and 284–295 eV are assigned to the binding energy of O, N, and C, respectively. The peak appearing at around 688 eV corresponds to the binding energy of F – , and the new peaks appearing at about 643 and 655 eV correspond to the binding energy of Mn 2+ (Figure e). − High-resolution XPS spectra shown in Figure S4a further confirm the successful modification of the MCPP membrane by PNIPAM and PVDF. The C 1s peaks, which are assigned to C–C (294.5 eV), C–F 2 (291.7 eV), C–F (290.5 eV), CO (288 eV), C–N (286.1 eV), and C–H 2 (284.6 eV), are detected clearly (Figure S4a).…”

A Carbon Aerogel Lightweight Al Battery for Fast Storage of Fluctuating Energy

“…[18] The absorption peak at 1026 cm −1 is ascribed to the stretching vibration of C─O bonds. [32,37] In the FTIR spectrum of CAF (Figure 1m), the absorption peak corresponding to the stretching vibration of the O─H bond shifted to 3444cm −1 , and the peak width became narrow, indicating that the interaction between ─OH groups and other molecules through H-bonds was weakened during annealing. The absorption peaks of ─COO − Na + and C─O were significantly decreased.…”

An integrated cellulose aerogel evaporator with improved thermal management and reduced enthalpy of evaporation using a hierarchical coordinated control strategy

“…11,12 Among the numerous possible substrates for 3D evaporators, cellulose aerogels are superior because they are sustainable, hydrophilic and can be easily formed into various structural designs. 13 These factors enable the continuous and efficient transport of water and reduce the outward reection of sunlight via scattering in pores. 14,15 However, the high degree of hydrophilicity of cellulose also increases its thermal conductivity sharply, leading to heat loss.…”