Recent Progress in Modification Strategies of Nanocellulose-Based Aerogels for Oil Absorption Application

Abstract

Oil spills and oily wastewater have become a major environmental problem in recent years, directly impacting the environment and biodiversity. Several techniques have been developed to solve this problem, including biological degradation, chemicals, controlled burning, physical absorption and membrane separation. Recently, biopolymeric aerogels have been proposed as a green solution for this problem, and they possess superior selective oil absorption capacity compared with other approaches. Several modification strategies have been applied to nanocellulose-based aerogel to enhance its poor hydrophobicity, increase its oil absorption capacity, improve its selectivity of oils and make it a compressible and elastic magnetically responsive aerogel, which will ease its recovery after use. This review presents an introduction to nanocellulose-based aerogel and its fabrication approaches. Different applications of nanocellulose aerogel in environmental, medical and industrial fields are presented. Different strategies for the modification of nanocellulose-based aerogel are critically discussed in this review, presenting the most recent works in terms of enhancing the aerogel performance in oil absorption in addition to the potential of these materials in near future.

Insights into the Role of Biopolymer-Based Xerogels in Biomedical Applications

“…Although many of the natural materials did not show significant toxicity to living cells, the preparation conditions may alter the chemistry of these materials and alter their biological effects [ 43 , 44 ]. Biopolymeric xerogels are dried forms of the biopolymer/s precursor; they have the chemical and biological characteristics of that biopolymer/s [ 45 ]. Several xerogels have been prepared without any need for further chemical addition or modification, but in other cases, natural compounds are added to extend the applications such as adding essential oils as an antibacterial agent.…”

Elastic white radish-based cellulose aerogel for efficient oil-water separation

“…Therefore, the development of highperformance selective adsorption materials to achieve rapid and e cient separation of oil-water mixture is of great signi cance. Aerogel is a porous and ultra-light material, showing a great application prospect in water pollution treatment and oil-water separation [5][6][7] . Compared with non-biomass porous materials such as silica aerogel [8] , carbon nanotube aerogel [9] , melamine sponge [10][11][12] and polyurethane sponge [11][12][13] , cellulose aerogels have the advantages of easy modi cation, renewability and abundant sources, and so they have attracted much attention [14][15][16][17] .…”

Ultralight, super-compression, and hydrophobic nanofibrous aerogels from cellulose acetate/polyethylene oxide nanofibers for efficient and recyclable oil absorption

“…With the development of the petrochemical industry, leakage of crude oil and contamination of industrial wastewater have become worse than ever, which dangerously threaten marine ecological balance as well as human health. 1,2 Over the past few decades, treatments for oil pollution have been divided into three main categories according to their mechanisms: (1) chemical methods, such as chemical oxidation, burning 3 and electrochemical degreasing; 4 (2) biodegradation methods; 5 (3) physical methods, such as oil skimming, 6 gravity separation, filtration, 7 and absorption. 8 Physical absorption is a method in which oil is automatically absorbed into the surface and inner of a porous material.…”