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Facile construction of cellulose nanocomposite aerogel containing TiO2 nanoparticles with high content and small size and their applications

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Abstract

TiO2/cellulose composite aerogels were easily fabricated by the in situ synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles in a cellulose matrix at a mild temperature (≤80 °C). The TiO2/cellulose aerogel structure and morphology were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermal gravimetric analysis, and nitrogen adsorption–desorption tests as well as tensile testing. The results revealed that the TiO2 content in the composite aerogels increased dramatically with an increase of the treating times in tetrabutyl titanate to achieve a value of 65 wt%, which was much higher than that in literatures. Depending on the number of hydrolysis cycles, the mean diameter of the TiO2 nanoparticles was controlled to be approximately from 1.5 ± 1.0 to 3.5 ± 2.0 nm. The TiO2/cellulose nanocomposite aerogel exhibited excellent mechanical strength, good UV screening ability as well as highly efficient photo-catalytic activity under weak UV light irradiation. This work opens a new avenue to construct TiO2/cellulose aerogels with a high content and small size of TiO2 nanoparticles, thus demonstrating potential applications in the fields of UV screening and catalyst.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (21334005), the Major International (Regional) Joint Research Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (21620102004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Molecule Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Qiyang Wang, Jie Cai & Lina Zhang

  2. Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2P5, Canada

    Yixiang Wang & Lingyun Chen

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  1. Qiyang Wang
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  2. Yixiang Wang
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  4. Jie Cai
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  5. Lina Zhang
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Correspondence to Jie Cai or Lina Zhang.

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Wang, Q., Wang, Y., Chen, L. et al. Facile construction of cellulose nanocomposite aerogel containing TiO2 nanoparticles with high content and small size and their applications. Cellulose 24, 2229–2240 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1262-5

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