New Insights into the Remediation of Water Pollutants using Nanobentonite Incorporated Nanocellulose Chitosan Based Aerogel

Dyes, organic solvents and oils pose a serious threat to the water resources and this is of immense global concern. For the removal of such harmful materials from wastewater, a novel aerogel was synthesized from a hydrogel precursor, formed by incorporating nano bentonite into the dialdehyde nanocellulose and carboxymethyl chitosan mesh. The material showed exceptional adsorption capacity towards diverse pollutants like dyes, organic solvents, and oils. This ultralight aerogel yielded maximum dye removal capacity up to 29.842 g g-1 and 20.927 g g-1 within the first 5 min of the reaction, over a wide range of pH towards Bromophenol blue and Direct Blue 6 respectively and up to 50 times of its own weight in case of oil and organic solvents. This eco-friendly aerogel showed a slight drop in the adsorption capacity after ten cycles of oil and organic solvents, which paves a path in its application in the removal of multiple classes of the pollutant from wastewater.