Fabrication of cellulose aerogel from wheat straw with strong absorptive capacity

An effectively mild solvent solution containing NaOH/PEG was employed to dissolve the cellulose extracted from the wheat straw.With further combined regeneration process and freeze-drying,the cellulose aerogel was successfully obtained.Scanning electron microscope,X-ray diffraction technique,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller were used to characterize this cellulose aerogel of low density(about 40 mg·cm^(–3))and three-dimensional network with large specific surface area(about 101 m2·g^(–1)).Additionally,with a hydrophobic modification by trimethylchlorosilane,the cellulose aerogel showed a strong absorptive capacity for oil and dye solutions.