Direct preparation of green and renewable aerogel materials from crude bagasse

Lignocellulosic biomass aerogels with relatively high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area and pore volume were prepared directly from bagasse solutions in the present study. Bagasse was dissolved in DMSO/LiCl, treated with cyclic freezing-thawing processes, and regenerated with water. The resulted bagasse hydrogels were solvent-exchanged to t-butanol and subjected to freeze-drying to obtain the lignocellulosic aerogels. The structure of the aerogels was studied with FTIR, nitrogen absorption, SEM, and XRD. The results showed that the aerogels had sheet-like skeletons interconnected with one another to form three-dimensional networks. The highest BET surface area and total pore volume of the aerogels were 185 m 2 /g and 0.46 cm 3 /g, respectively. By adjusting the concentration of bagasse solution in DMSO/LiCl, the structure of the aerogels could be controlled to some extent.