Flexible nanocellulose-based aerogel with loading of modified UiO-66 as efficient adsorbent for removal of heavy metal ions
Currently, preparation of outstanding adsorbents has attracted public concern in environmentally friendly and sustainable pollutant redress. Herein, we report a directional freeze-drying method to prepare a flexible and reusable adsorbent through introducing modified metal-organic framework material (UiO-66-EDTA) into cellulose nanofibers (CNF) aerogel. By controlling the concentration of crosslinkable carboxymethy cellulose (CMC) solution, we produced aerogels with different pore structures, fibrillar, columnar and lamellar morphology. The obtained UiO-66-EDTA/CNF/CMC aerogel (U-EDTACCA) showed excellent adsorption performance for total 9 types of heavy metal ions with the removal efficiency reaching 91%. Moreover, the aerogels could retain 88% of its original shape after 5 times cycling. The aerogel may be appropriate material for adsorbing heavy metal ions.