Preparation of wood-based hydrogel membranes for efficient purification of complex wastewater using a reconstitution strategy

Highlights

● Wood powder reconstitution strategy was developed to prepare hydrogel membrane.

● The membrane has the merits of adjustable pore size and superhydrophilicity.

● The reconstitution strategy is environmentally friendly and easy to operate.

● The membrane can purify complex wastewater and has excellent anti-fouling property.

● This study opened up a new strategy for the recycling of waste wood powder.

Abstract

To avoid resource wastage and secondary environmental pollution, recycling and reusing waste wood powder is still a great challenge. Moreover, the poor viscosity and irregular pore size of wood powder limit its practical application. This study employed a green and convenient wood powder reconstitution strategy to achieve highly adhesive bonding and pore size control between wood powder particles, thus preparing a high-strength and super hydrophilic wood powder membrane. The wood powder fibers were partially dissolved and regenerated to create a reconstituted wood powder hydrogel membrane, using waste wood powder as the raw material. The wood powder reconstitution strategy offers advantages such as environmental friendliness, simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and strong universality. Furthermore, the materials exhibit excellent self-cleaning properties and superhydrophilicity. Driven by gravity, the membrane can purify oily wastewater and dyes. Additionally, the reconstitution strategy offers a new pathway for recycling wood powder.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Wood powder / Reconstitution strategy / Hydrogel membrane / Recycling / Wastewater

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LY23D060004), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Zhoushan of China (No. 2022C41005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51606168).

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-024-1844-z and is accessible for authorized users.

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