Preparation of cellulose sponge from waste newspaper

Abstract

Using cellulose extracted from waste newspaper as raw material, NaOH/urea aqueous solution as solvent, anhydrous sodium sulfate as pore-forming agent, cellulose sponge with super absorbent capacity was prepared by freezing method, and hydrophobic cellulose sponge was prepared by immersing cellulose sponge into hydrolysate of cetyltrimethoxysilane with different composition. The water absorption and oil absorption of water-absorbent and hydrophobic cellulose sponge samples were tested and characterized by infrared and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that the water absorption of water-absorbent cellulose sponge could reach 560 wt% under the conditions of 3 g of microcrystalline cellulose, 15 g of pore-forming agent and 50 g of NaOH/urea solution. Hydrophobic cellulose sponge was prepared by hydrolysis of hexadecyl trimethoxysilane/SiO2, and the best oil rate was 157 wt%.