Efficient removal of methyl orange by nanocomposite aerogel of polyethyleneimine and β-cyclodextrin grafted cellulose nanocrystals

Owing to the high specific surface area and lightweight, aerogels exhibit excellent adsorption capacity that can be tailored for the fabrication of high-performance environmental purification materials. Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) is an abundant, bio-based, low-density one dimensional (1D) nanomaterials with high-respect ratio. In this work, CNC is first chemically grafted with polyethylenimine (PEI) and further by beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD), which is subsequently crosslinked by polyacrylamide (PAM) to prepare the composted aerogel (CNC-PEI-CD/PAM), and being endowed high-adsorption capacity for methyl orange (MO) (155.93 mg g(-1)) and removal rate (97.46%). Our unique strategy overcomes the low graft efficiency of beta-CD directly onto CNC by connecting PEI. Besides, CNC-PEI-CD/PAM not only shows superior adsorption performance to methyl orange, attributing to the unique selective cavity structure of beta-CD and dense surface charge of PEI, but also displays the desired reusability. This material shows the huge potential in water purification.

Automated summary

By connecting PEI, this study successfully overcomes the low graft efficiency of beta-CD directly onto CNC, obtaining CNC-PEI-CD/PAM with high selective cavity structure and dense surface charge of PEI. It shows superior adsorption performance to methyl orange and desired reusability, demonstrating huge potential in water purification.