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A facile route to fabricate anisotropic and flexible carbon aerogels from pineapple leaf for oil spills and solvent removal

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Abstract

Converting agricultural residues into valuable materials has been recently a hot trend because biomass is a cellulose-rich source to efficiently manufacture cellulose-based materials. In this study, sponge-like carbon aerogels from biomass-derived cellulose are successfully fabricated using a rapid, simple, and cost-effective method without using harmful and toxic ingredients. The synthesized carbon aerogels are promising candidates for oil spill removal due to their hydrophobicity and oleophilicity. The aerogels producing from pineapple leaf fibers with the usage of polyamidoamine epichlorohydrin (PAE) as a cross-linker are pyrolyzed at 750 °C to form an ultra-light (density of 0.0088 g cm−3), super porous (99.68%) and flexible carbon aerogels. The as-fabricated aerogels show a fast adsorption rate (less than 30 s) and preeminent adsorption capability to various types of oil, in particular for the pump oil, at approx. 130 g g−1. Carbon aerogels with 5 wt% of PAE compared to dry microfibrilled cellulose (MFC) weight exhibit the highest capacity of oil adsorption by the value of 113 g g−1 for olive oil. A plinth freezing by a copper block results in vertically-aligned aerogels having oil adsorption capacity increased by 25% compared with the non-directional ones. Additionally, the adsorption capacity of the material maintains 75% of the initial value after 7 adsorption–desorption cycles. Therefore, our high-performance aerogels from affordable resources show great potential in treating oil spills effectively.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM for supporting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), 268 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Chi Kim Thi Pham, Trang Khanh Duy, Nga H. N. Do, Luon Tan Nguyen, Phong T. Mai & Phung K. Le

  2. Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Chi Kim Thi Pham, Trang Khanh Duy, Nga H. N. Do, Luon Tan Nguyen, Phong T. Mai & Phung K. Le

  3. Ho Chi Minh City Forensic Center, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Trang Khanh Duy

  4. Institute for Tropical Technology and Environmental Protection, 57A Truong Quoc Dung Street, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Kien A. Le

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  1. Chi Kim Thi Pham
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Contributions

CKTP: methodology, characterization, investigation, data collection, data analysis, writing—original draft; TKD: characterization, investigation, visualization; NHND: validation, writing—review & editing; LTN: validation, writing—review & editing, PTM: data curation, validation; KAL: data curation, writing—review & editing; PKL: resources, validation, project administration.

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Correspondence to Phung K. Le.

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Pham, C.K.T., Duy, T.K., Do, N.H.N. et al. A facile route to fabricate anisotropic and flexible carbon aerogels from pineapple leaf for oil spills and solvent removal. J Porous Mater 30, 1911–1923 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-023-01474-8

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