Oil/water separation by Nano Cellulose Aerogel Sponge Filter

A nano-cellulose aerogel filter with exhibiting super-hydrophilic and underwater-super-oleophobic behaviours is synthesized by a facile method of cross-linking between cellulose fibres and polyamideamine-epichlorohydrin. The prepared aerogel showed excellent oil/water separation efficiency for both oil/water mixtures and oil/water surfactant-free emulsion, which showed that the cellulose aerogel filter can be used for oil/water separation and recovery. However, the aerogel filter was still faced with difficulties in separating oil/water surfactant-stabilized emulsion due to its relatively large pores within the structure. Therefore, a second layer was coated onto the single layer cellulose aerogel in order to achieve improved performance in separating oil/water stabilized emulsion.