Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 LongPan Road, NanJing, JiangSu Province 210037, P.R. China.
School of Chemical &Biomolecular Engineering and RBI, Georgia Institute of Technology, 500 10th Street N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0620, United States.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 6;7:40096. doi: 10.1038/srep40096.
Hereby we report a novel cellulose nanofirbril aerogel-based W/O/W microreactor system that can be used for fast and high efficient molecule or ions extraction and separation. The ultra-light cellulose nanofibril based aerogel microspheres with high porous structure and water storage capacity were prepared. The aerogel microspheres that were saturated with stripping solution were dispersed in an oil phase to form a stable water-in-oil (W/O) suspension. This suspension was then dispersed in large amount of external waste water to form W/O/W microreactor system. Similar to a conventional emulsion liquid membrane (ELM), the molecules or ions in external water can quickly transport to the internal water phase. However, the microreactor is also significantly different from traditional ELM: the water saturated nanocellulose cellulose aerogel microspheres can be easily removed by filtration or centrifugation after extraction reaction. The condensed materials in the filtrated aerogel particles can be squeezed and washed out and aerogel microspheres can be reused. This novel process overcomes the key barrier step of demulsification in traditional ELM process. Our experimental indicates the novel microreactor was able to extract 93% phenol and 82% Cu from external water phase in a few minutes, suggesting its great potential for industrial applications.
我们在此报告了一种新型的基于纤维素纳米纤维气凝胶的 W/O/W 微反应器系统，可用于快速高效地提取和分离分子或离子。我们制备了具有高多孔结构和高储水能力的超轻纤维素纳米纤维基气凝胶微球。将充满萃取液的气凝胶微球分散在油相中，形成稳定的油包水（W/O）悬浮液。然后，将该悬浮液分散在大量外部废水中，形成 W/O/W 微反应器系统。与传统的乳状液膜（ELM）类似，外部水中的分子或离子可以快速传质到内部水相。然而，该微反应器与传统 ELM 也有显著的不同：萃取反应后，水饱和的纳米纤维素气凝胶微球可以很容易地通过过滤或离心去除。过滤中气凝胶颗粒中的浓缩物质可以被挤压和冲洗出来，气凝胶微球可以重复使用。这种新型过程克服了传统 ELM 过程中破乳的关键障碍步骤。我们的实验表明，新型微反应器能够在几分钟内从外部水相中萃取 93%的苯酚和 82%的铜，这表明其在工业应用方面具有巨大的潜力。
