The serious agglomeration phenomenon of ultrafine nanoparticles is widespread, resulting in low utilization and poor performance of adsorbents in the scavenging of toxic ions. Herein, ultrafine MnFe2O4 (8-13 nm) are uniformly anchored onto the cellulose framework by fast hydrothermal and freeze-drying processes. The as-prepared super-hydrophilic MnFe2O4/cellulose aerogel (MCA) had a three-dimensional (3D) network structure with interconnected and forked fibrils, developed porous structure and high surface area. Combined with the adsorption-aggregation effect of cellulose and high surface activity of the low agglomerated ultrafine MnFe2O4, the adsorption efficiency of MCA was strongly improved and thus achieved a higher utilization. To enable its further use in a hostile environment for the treatment of severe oil pollution, FAS-17 was used to modify the MnFe2O4/cellulose aerogel (F-MCA) for achieving full utilization of their intrinsic structural features. The lipophilic F-MCA exhibited a large bearing capacity on the water and fast adsorption performance for oils/organic solvents.
Keywords: Adsorbents; Cellulose aerogel; Magnetic nanohybrids; Toxic ions capture; Water/oil separation.
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