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In a world’s first, scientists have successfully converted paper waste into green cellulose aerogels that are non-toxic, ultra-light, flexible, extremely strong and water repellent.
This novel material is ideal for applications such as oil spill cleaning, heat insulation as well as packaging, and it can potentially be used as coating materials for drug delivery and as smart materials for various biomedical applications, researchers said.
“Aerogels, which are among the lightest solid materials known to man, are one of the finest insulation materials available. Traditional aerogels are mainly made of silica, which is not environment-friendly,” said Duong Hai from National University of Singapore (NUS).
“Our team developed a simple, cost-effective and fast method of converting paper waste into aerogels. In addition to low thermal conductivity, these novel aerogels have several unique features, one of which is super high oil absorption capacity — it is up to four times higher than commercial sorbents available in the market,” Hai said.
Researchers also developed a more eco-friendly process to convert paper waste into aerogels.
“Our fabrication process uses 70 per cent less energy, produces fewer polluting emissions into the air and water, as well as uses less dioxins in the chlorine bleaching process.
It is also faster — the entire process only takes three days,” said Hai.
The novel cellulose aerogels has super high oil absorption capacity. Coated with Trimethoxy-methylsilane (MTMS), the aerogels are water repellent and are capable of absorbing oil (excluding water) up to 90 times their dry weight, making them up to four times more effective than commercial oil sorbents, researchers said.
“Oil spills are serious disasters that threaten marine ecosystems. Sorption has been considered one of the most effective ways to clean oil spills,” said Hai.
“Polypropylene (PP)-based absorbents are widely used for oil absorption but they are non-biodegradable, and their absorption capabilities are both low and slow. Our cellulose aerogels serve as an alternative to current methods of oil spill cleaning.”
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