Novel and multifunctional adsorbent fabricated by Zeolitic imidazolate framworks-8 and waste cigarette filters for wastewater treatment: Effective adsorption and photocatalysis

Cellulose based aerogels for water purification have attracted intensive attentions due to the high porosity and biodegradability . However, the low adsorption capacity and poor adsorption efficiency restrain its practical application in this field. In this work, we synthesized a series of zeolitic imidazolate framworks-8 (ZIF-8) decorated waste cellulose aerogels through a facile blending method using waste cigarette filters and NaOH/urea as cellulose resources and a green solvent , respectively. These results showed that ZIF-8 can improve the thermal stability and increase the specific surface area of cellulose aerogels effectively. Furthermore, the highest specific surface area for as-prepared waste cellulose/ZIF-8 aerogels reached to 1035 ​m 2  ​·g −1 . They exhibited a high adsorption capacity of 10.31 ​mg ​·g −1 and a strong photocatalytic activity for methylene blue , which can degrade methylene blue completely within 2 ​h under UV light. In addition, these waste cellulose/ZIF-8 aerogels had a good recycle-ability, and the degradation rate can maintain above 84% after 5 cycles. Thus, as-prepared waste cellulose/ZIF-8 aerogels can be applied in water purification as multifunctional adsorbents with good adsorption-photocatalytic performance.