The wood supramolecular structure offers a great platform for selective removal of components while retaining the cellulose nanofibrils network, that can result in high surface area and low density nanoporous aerogels. In this work, this nanostructure was preserved by selectively removing the rest cell wall components by a mild chemical delignification process and dried by solvent exchange. The resulting nanostructure was then modified by impregnation with cyclodextrin-modified chitosan, to provide hydrophobic anchoring structures that enable the capture of molecules of interest such as microcystin-LR by complexing. Microcystin-LR was selected as target molecule as this amphipathic molecule is generated throughout seasonal algae blooms with negative impact to the environment and human life. Furthermore, this hepatotoxin tends to bioaccumulate in the trophic chain and remains in the drinking water supply even after conventional water treatment. Results showed that  the generated chitosan-cyclodextrin coated aerogels had a 75% porosity and presented a change of 339% while swelling. As for the  remotion of microcystin-LR from a 5.4µg/mL solution, 16.6% of the initial concentration was uptake resulting in an adsorption capacity of 0.12 mg/g. Thus, in this work a simple approach was developed to generate high surface aerogels utilizing self-assembly as coating strategy, which are capable of removing hydrophobic molecules utilizing nature-inspired bio-based materials.

Delignified wood coated with cyclodextrin grafted chitosan as strategy for the removal of microcystin-LR

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.