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.