Rational fabrication of chitosan/alginate/silica ternary aerogel beads adsorbent with free separation

Abstract

Novel chitosan/alginate/silica ternary aerogel beads were successfully prepared by the orifice-coagulation bath with the ambient pressure drying method and utilising chitosan, sodium alginate, and tetraethoxysilane as the initial raw materials. The morphologies, porosity characteristics, and dye absorbencies of the ternary aerogel beads were also investigated, respectively. The obtained samples are milky light solid, the size of the spherical aerogel is uniform, its diameter can be controlled ~5 mm, the specific surface area is 169.4 m 2 g -1 , pore size distribution is concentrated in the 2-100 nm, which is a typical nanofilamentous network structure. Meanwhile, the ternary beads were tested for dyestuffs adsorption; the results showed that the obtained samples exhibit excellent adsorption properties, and can keep good sphericity as a class of novel adsorbents.