Construction of novel regenerated cellulose based foam derived from waste cigarette filters as effective oil adsorbent

The reuse of waste cigarette filters is helpful to save resources and protect environment, and cellulose based functional materials can be applied in wastewater treatment due to the high porosity. Therefore, a novel kind of cellulose foams were fabricated by using waste cigarette filters and polyvinyl alcohol via a lyophilization technology and hydrophobicity modification in this work. As-prepared foams possessed an ultra-low density and high specific surface area (up to 40 m 2 g −1 ). After the hydrophobicity modification, the cellulose foam exhibited a water contact angle of 91.9° and 126.2° on external surface and cross section, which showed a superior oil adsorption capacity of 14 g g −1 . These developed cellulose foams have a low cost, good hydrophobicity and high adsorption capacity for oil as a promising absorbent, realizing the conversion of waste into high-value products successfully.