title: Cellulose Nanofibril Based-Aerogel Microreactors: A High Efficiency and Easy Recoverable W/O/W Membrane Separation System.
abstract: Hereby we report a novel cellulose nanofirbril aerogel-based W/O/W microreactor system that can be used for fast and high efficient molecule or ions extraction and separation. The ultra-light cellulose nanofibril based aerogel microspheres with high porous structure and water storage capacity were prepared. The aerogel microspheres that were saturated with stripping solution were dispersed in an oil phase to form a stable water-in-oil (W/O) suspension. This suspension was then dispersed in large amount of external waste water to form W/O/W microreactor system. Similar to a conventional emulsion liquid membrane (ELM), the molecules or ions in external water can quickly transport to the internal water phase. However, the microreactor is also significantly different from traditional ELM: the water saturated nanocellulose cellulose aerogel microspheres can be easily removed by filtration or centrifugation after extraction reaction. The condensed materials in the filtrated aerogel particles can be squeezed and washed out and aerogel microspheres can be reused. This novel process overcomes the key barrier step of demulsification in traditional ELM process. Our experimental indicates the novel microreactor was able to extract 93% phenol and 82% Cu2+from external water phase in a few minutes, suggesting its great potential for industrial applications.
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 LongPan Road, NanJing, JiangSu Province 210037, P.R. China.|School of Chemical &Biomolecular Engineering and RBI, Georgia Institute of Technology, 500 10th Street N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0620, United States.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 LongPan Road, NanJing, JiangSu Province 210037, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 LongPan Road, NanJing, JiangSu Province 210037, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 LongPan Road, NanJing, JiangSu Province 210037, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guolin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical &Biomolecular Engineering and RBI, Georgia Institute of Technology, 500 10th Street N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0620, United States.
authors.forename: Yulin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng