Cellulose nanofiber aerogels modified with titanium dioxide nanoparticles as high-performance nanofiltration materials.

Autor: Sepahvand S; Department of Bio Systems, Faculty of New Technologies and Aerospace Engineering, Zirab Campus, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran; Department of Chemical Technologies, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran., Ashori A; Department of Chemical Technologies, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: ashori@irost.ir., Jonoobi M; Department of Wood and Paper Science and Technology, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: International journal of biological macromolecules [Int J Biol Macromol] 2024 Jan; Vol. 256 (Pt 1), pp. 128204. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 17.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.128204
Abstrakt: Air pollution is a major environmental and public health issue. Each year, large amounts of particulate matter (PM) and other harmful pollutants are released into the atmosphere. Conventional polymer nanofiber filters lack the functionality to capture ultrafine PM. As a sustainable alternative, this work developed titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticle surface-modified cellulose nanofiber (CNF) aerogels for PM 2.5 filtration. CNFs were extracted via mechanical disintegration to diameters below 100 nm. The nanofibers were functionalized with 1.0-2.5 wt% TiO 2 nanoparticles using citric acid cross-linking. Cylindrical aerogels were fabricated by freezing and lyophilizing aqueous suspensions. Structural, morphological, thermal, and mechanical properties were characterized. TiO 2 modification increased density (11.8-19.7 mg/cm 3 ), specific surface area (287-370 m 2 /g), and Young's modulus (33.5-125.5 kPa) but decreased porosity (99.6 %-97.7 %), pore size (20.2-15.6 nm) and thermal stability compared to unmodified cellulose aerogels. At 2.5 wt% loading, the optimized aerogels achieved 100 % absorption of 0.1-5 μm particulates owing to reduced pore size. Despite enhanced filtration capabilities, the modified CNF aerogels retained inherent biodegradability, degrading over 70 % within one month of soil burial. This pioneering research establishes TiO 2 functionalized CNF aerogels as promising sustainable alternatives to traditional petroleum-based air filters, representing an innovative approach to creating next-generation nanofiltration materials capable of effectively capturing fine and ultrafine particulate matter pollutants.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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