Green Strong Cornstalk Rind-Based Cellulose-PVA Aerogel for Oil Adsorption and Thermal Insulation

Xiaoyang Yi; Zhongxu Zhang; Junfeng Niu; Hongyan Wang; Tiankun Li; Junjie Gong; Rongbo Zheng

doi:10.3390/polym16091260

Green Strong Cornstalk Rind-Based Cellulose-PVA Aerogel for Oil Adsorption and Thermal Insulation

Polymers (Basel). 2024 May 1;16(9):1260. doi: 10.3390/polym16091260.

Authors

Xiaoyang Yi¹, Zhongxu Zhang¹, Junfeng Niu², Hongyan Wang³, Tiankun Li², Junjie Gong², Rongbo Zheng^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China.
² College of Biological & Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China.
³ Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou 310023, China.

Abstract

Cellulose-based aerogel has attracted considerable attention for its excellent adsorption capacity, biodegradability, and renewability. However, it is considered eco-unfriendly due to defibrillation of agriculture waste and requires harmful/expensive chemical agents. In this study, cornstalk rind-based aerogel was obtained via the following steps: green H₂O₂/HAc delignification of cornstalk rind to obtain cellulose fibers, binding with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and freeze-drying treatment, and hydrophobic modification with stearic acid. The obtained aerogel showed high compressive strength (200 KPa), which is apparently higher (about 32 kPa) than NaClO-delignified cornstalk-based cellulose/PVA aerogel. Characterization of the obtained aerogel through SEM, water contact angle, etc., showed high porosity (95%), low density (0.0198 g/cm^-3), and hydrophobicity (water contact angle, 159°), resulting in excellent n-hexane adsorption capacity (35 g/g), higher (about 29.5 g/g) than NaClO-delignified cornstalk-based cellulose/PVA aerogel. The adsorbed oil was recovered by the extrusion method, and the aerogel showed excellent recyclability in oil adsorption.

Keywords: H2O2/HAc delignification; PVA; cellulose aerogel; cornstalk rind; oil adsorption; thermal insulation.

Grants and funding

Financial support for this research was provided by the Yunnan Fundamental Research (202001AS070041), Zhejiang Provincial Cooperative Forestry Science and Technology Project (No.2023SY05) and Zhejiang Province Lingyan Key R&D Project (2022C01177).