Regenerated cellulose as template for in-situ synthesis of monoclinic titanium dioxide nanocomposite carbon aerogel towards multiple application in water treatment

Jin-Long Zhu; Shi-Peng Chen; Guo-Qi Ma; Jia-Xin Ren; Hai-Long Li; Wei Lin; Hua-Dong Huang; Zhong-Ming Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.085

Regenerated cellulose as template for in-situ synthesis of monoclinic titanium dioxide nanocomposite carbon aerogel towards multiple application in water treatment

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jan 15;630(Pt A):772-782. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.085. Epub 2022 Oct 19.

Authors

Jin-Long Zhu¹, Shi-Peng Chen², Guo-Qi Ma², Jia-Xin Ren², Hai-Long Li³, Wei Lin⁴, Hua-Dong Huang⁵, Zhong-Ming Li⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu 610065, China; College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Leather Chemistry and Engineering of Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu 610065, China.
² College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu 610065, China.
³ Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 58, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Leather Chemistry and Engineering of Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu 610065, China.
⁵ College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu 610065, China. Electronic address: hdhuang@scu.edu.cn.
⁶ College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu 610065, China. Electronic address: zmli@scu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36283265
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.085

Abstract

Immobilizing catalyst system faces the challenge of balancing catalysts stability and exposure of active site in water treatment. In this study, a novel in-situ synthesis of monoclinic phase of titanium dioxide (TiO₂(B)) in cellulose-derived carbon aerogel (TCA) is proposed for processing multi-task in water treatment. The homogeneous gelation reaction supported the high dispersion of TiO₂(B) in carbon skeleton. Meanwhile, TiO₂ acts as crosslinker to reinforce cellulose network, then the grain refinement of amorphous TiO₂ is limited to obtain TiO₂(B) during carbonization. Benefiting from the reinforced structure, TCA remains the porous structure after carbonization and exposes more adsorption site than carbon aerogel blended with anatase particles (ACA). The adsorption performance of TCA are 837.3 mg/g, 1156.2 mg/g and 512.6 mg/g on methylene blue, malachite green and crystal violet, respectively. Compared with ACA, the superior interaction between TiO₂ and graphite-like carbon improves the degradation rate of tetracycline from 1.3 × 10^-3 min^-1 to 8.6 × 10^-3 min^-1, and maintains the degradation efficiency in 3 rounds cyclic test. Besides, TCA also exhibits nearly twice to ACA on absorption capacity of different oil. This facile in-situ synthesis method offers a new insight in fabricating carbon aerogel immobilized photocatalysts system for multi-task in water treatment.

Keywords: Carbon aerogel; Monoclinic titanium dioxide; Oil absorption; Organic dye adsorption; Tetracycline degradation.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Catalysis
Cellulose / chemistry
Nanocomposites* / chemistry
Titanium / chemistry
Water Purification*

Substances

titanium dioxide
rayon, purified
Carbon
Titanium
Cellulose