Crosslinked corn stalk parenchyma cellulose with β-cyclodextrin to produced hierarchically porous aerogel as a selective adsorbent for ciprofloxacin capture

The development of high-performance biomass adsorbents from renewable resources is crucial to mitigating antibiotic pollution in water. In this study, an eco-friendly composite porous aerogel was fabricated by crosslinking regenerated cellulose (RC) derived from corn stalk parenchyma with carboxylated β-cyclodextrin (βCD-COOH). The composite possesses a hierarchical micro-nano architecture that exposes abundant active sites, enabling remarkable selectivity and efficiency in capturing ciprofloxacin (CIP). Through a dual cross-linking strategy combining physical entanglement and covalent bonding, βCD-COOH was effectively integrated into the RC network, which synergistically enhanced CIP adsorption via hydrophobic cavity inclusion and carboxyl-mediated electrostatic interactions. Attributed to the synergistic effects of host-guest complexation and electrostatic interactions, the composite material exhibited a significantly enhanced adsorption capacity toward CIP, reaching a capacity of 22.97 mg/g. This work offers a sustainable and scalable approach to converting agricultural waste into an efficient adsorbent for antibiotic removal from aqueous systems.