Flexible and porous cellulose aerogels/zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) hybrids for adsorption removal of Cr(IV) from water

The low cost of adsorption treatment of heavy metal ions in water has been extensively studied. In this paper, we have demonstrated a facile method of combining two emerging materials cellulose aerogels (CA) and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) into one highly functional aerogel to adsorption removal of heavy metal ions from water, by entrapping MOF particles into a flexible and porous CA. The resultant hybrid cellulose aerogels had a highly porous structure with zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) loadings can reach 30 wt%. The hybrid cellulose aerogels (named as [email protected]) show good adsorption capacity for Cr(Ⅵ). The adsorption process of [email protected] is better described by pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm, with maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 41.8 mg g−1 for Cr(Ⅵ), whose adsorption capacity has greatly improved when compared with a single CA or ZIF-8. Thus, such a flexible and durable hybrid cellulose aerogel is a very prospective material for metal ions cleanup and industrial wastewater purification.