Defective UiO-66/cellulose nanocomposite aerogel for the adsorption of heterocyclic aromatic amines

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), arising as chemical derivatives during the high-temperature culinary treatment of proteinaceous comestibles, exhibit notable carcinogenic potential. In this paper, a composite aerogel (AG D-UiO-66 ) with high-capacity and fast adsorption of HAAs was made with anchoring defective UiO-66 (D-UiO-66) mediated by lauric acid on the backbone of cellulose nanofibers (CNF). AG D-UiO-66 with hierarchical porosity reduced the mass transfer efficiency for the adsorption of HAAs and achieved high adsorption amount (0.84–1.05 μmol/g) and fast adsorption (15 min). The isothermal adsorption model demonstrated that AG D-UiO-66 belonged to a multilayer adsorption mechanism for HAAs. Furthermore, AG D-UiO-66 was successfully used to adsorb 12 HAAs in different food (roasted beef, roasted pork, roasted salmon and marinade) with high recoveries of 94.65%–104.43%. The intrinsic potential of AG D-UiO-66 demonstrated that it could be widely applicable to the adsorption of HAAs in foods.