Understanding the effects of cellulose fibers from various pre-treated barley straw on properties of aerogels

This article for the first time reports the effects of properties of cellulose fibers obtained from various pre-treatments on the properties of aerogels. Here, cellulose fibers with different properties were produced by pre-treating barley straw with three different pre-treatment methods: alkaline, dilute acid, and acidified glycerol at 100 °C for 2 h. The results showed that the difference in composition of fibers lead to the difference in properties of aerogels. The aerogel prepared from fibers with the highest cellulose content (80% from acidified glycerol) had the largest surface area of 49.5 m2/g, whereas the aerogel with the lowest lignin content (6% from alkaline) has the lowest density and highest porosity of 0.0274 g/cm3 and 98.17%, respectively. Also, it shows that aerogels prepared from cellulose fibers with higher hemicellulose content and porosity had higher adsorption capacity towards methylene blue, suggesting that hemicellulose content and porosity of aerogels govern the adsorption capacity via electrostatic attraction and pore-filling. All synthesized cellulose aerogel had the oil adsorption capacity up to 30 times of its own weight and excellent storage capacity. The oil was easily recovered via a mechanical approach. This suggests the cellulose aerogels can be used as oil-spillage clean-up.