Superhydrophobic Cellulose Nanofiber-Assembled Aerogels for Highly Efficient Water-in-Oil Emulsions Separation

Here, we reported a facile strategy to create superhydrophobic aerogels via freeze-drying of silylated cellulose nanofibers and silica nanoparticles mixed suspensions. The as-prepared aerogels possessed a hierarchical porous structure with high roughness and low surface energy. The hierarchical rough structure and low surface energy endowed the resultant aerogels with superhydrophobicity (water contact angle up to 168.4°). Importantly, the composite aerogels could separate surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions without external pressure, with high separation efficiency (>99%) and high flux (1910 ± 60 L m–2 h–1). The aerogels were easily recyclable and showed great antifouling performance, which could meet the requirements for long-term use. We also assembled a simple device to collect oil directly from water-in-oil emulsions with the obtained aerogel and a self-priming pump. The fabrication of the composite aerogels in our work provides a versatile way to fabricate cellulose composite materials for water-in-oil emulsions separation

Modulation of Assembly and Dynamics in Colloidal Hydrogels via Ionic Bridge from Cellulose Nanofibrils and Poly(ethylene glycol)

The biologically inspired dynamic materials offer principles for designing man-made systems by using assembly approach. In this work, the hybrid hydrogels consist of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) that combine a mechanically strong skeleton with flexible PEG chains. The distinct gel state is observed at room temperature with <i>G</i>′ > <i>G</i>″ and an order of magnitude higher <i>G</i>′ values from 0.08 to 0.93 kPa upon increasing CNF concentration from 0.2 to 2 wt % at constant 2 wt % PEG. Combined with mechanically strong CNFs and dynamic ionic bridges through amine-terminated tetra-arm PEG adsorption to TEMPO-oxidized colloidal nanofibrils surface, the assembled colloidal hydrogels show high modulus, reversible gel–sol transition, and rapid self-recovery properties. It is envisioned that simply mixing hard CNF and soft polymeric matrix would lead to a facile method to bridge reversible dynamic bonds in a cellulose-based hybrid network and broad cellulose applications in the preparation of high performance supramolecular systems

Superhydrophobic Cellulose Nanofiber-Assembled Aerogels for Highly Efficient Water-in-Oil Emulsions Separation

Here, we reported a facile strategy to create superhydrophobic aerogels via freeze-drying of silylated cellulose nanofibers and silica nanoparticles mixed suspensions. The as-prepared aerogels possessed a hierarchical porous structure with high roughness and low surface energy. The hierarchical rough structure and low surface energy endowed the resultant aerogels with superhydrophobicity (water contact angle up to 168.4°). Importantly, the composite aerogels could separate surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions without external pressure, with high separation efficiency (>99%) and high flux (1910 ± 60 L m^–2 h^–1). The aerogels were easily recyclable and showed great antifouling performance, which could meet the requirements for long-term use. We also assembled a simple device to collect oil directly from water-in-oil emulsions with the obtained aerogel and a self-priming pump. The fabrication of the composite aerogels in our work provides a versatile way to fabricate cellulose composite materials for water-in-oil emulsions separation

Superhydrophobic Cellulose Nanofiber-Assembled Aerogels for Highly Efficient Water-in-Oil Emulsions Separation

Here, we reported a facile strategy to create superhydrophobic aerogels via freeze-drying of silylated cellulose nanofibers and silica nanoparticles mixed suspensions. The as-prepared aerogels possessed a hierarchical porous structure with high roughness and low surface energy. The hierarchical rough structure and low surface energy endowed the resultant aerogels with superhydrophobicity (water contact angle up to 168.4°). Importantly, the composite aerogels could separate surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions without external pressure, with high separation efficiency (>99%) and high flux (1910 ± 60 L m^–2 h^–1). The aerogels were easily recyclable and showed great antifouling performance, which could meet the requirements for long-term use. We also assembled a simple device to collect oil directly from water-in-oil emulsions with the obtained aerogel and a self-priming pump. The fabrication of the composite aerogels in our work provides a versatile way to fabricate cellulose composite materials for water-in-oil emulsions separation

Highly Efficient Conversion of Xylose Residues to Levulinic Acid over FeCl₃ Catalyst in Green Salt Solutions

The economically viable synthesis of levulinic acid (LA), a promising and valuable renewable biomass-derived platform for bioproducts, with high carbon efficiency is a challenge. A direct and highly effective catalytic system for conversion of xylose residues (XRs) into LA under mild conditions by using FeCl₃ as catalyst and cheaply available NaCl as promoter has been developed. The NaCl solution exhibits high carbon efficiency in LA (68.0 mol %) when compared with the non-NaCl systems (48.5 mol %) due to the moderate increase of the acidity and the higher viscosity of the NaCl system than water. The experimental results demonstrated that the presence of NaCl caused no distinctive changes on reaction pathways but increased the dissolution rate and the hydrolysis rate of XRs cellulose. Moreover, further integration of our degradation process with a reactive extraction step makes energy-efficient separation of LA. The NaCl solutions easily and efficiently extracted LA into LA-derived solvent 2-methyltetrahydrofuran from aqueous solutions. The efficiency and integration of the reaction process presented a great potential for LA production from renewable biomass with the aid of concentrated seawater

[1 + 2 + 3] Annulation as a General Access to Indolo[3,2‑<i>b</i>]carbazoles: Synthesis of Malasseziazole C

A formal [1 + 2 + 3] annulation of methyleneindolinones with o-alkenyl arylisocyanides has been developed for the general and efficient synthesis of both symmetrical and unsymmetrical indolo­[3,2-b]­carbazoles. The chemoselectivity of this domino reaction was tuned by a tethered alkenyl group, which enables successive formation of three new bonds and two rings from readily accessible starting materials in a single operation. Furthermore, this methodology was used as a key step in the synthesis of the alkaloid malasseziazole C

Synthesis of Magnetic Lignin-Based Hollow Microspheres: A Highly Adsorptive and Reusable Adsorbent Derived from Renewable Resources

Lignin, a byproduct of the wood-pulping industry, is mostly treated as a noncommercialized waste product. Therefore, it is significant to study its potential for the conversion of this renewable and sustainable resource into high-valued chemicals and materials. In this study, a renewable lignin-based material with high performance in wastewater treatment has been explored on account of its satisfactory properties and being environmentally friendly. Herein, lignin hollow microspheres (LHM) were facilely prepared from esterified organosolv lignin with maleic anhydride (MA) via self-assembly in the mixed tetrahydrofuran–Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles aqueous media. Moreover, the magnetic lignin spheres (MLS) were also successfully fabricated by introducing Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The structural changes of esterified lignin polymers were identified and morphology and property of obtained LHM and MLS were characterized by means of TEM, SEM, VSM and FT-IR. In addition, the adsorption capacities of MLS for methylene blue and Rhodamine B from aqueous solutions were also comparatively investigated. It was observed from SEM and TEM images that the LHM from larch lignin exhibited uniform spherical and dense surface, but that from poplar lignin was not rigid enough to keep the perfect spherical shape and partially collapsed. The adsorption capacity results showed that the MLS from larch lignin exhibited better adsorption properties for methylene blue (31.23 mg/g) and Rhodamine B (17.62 mg/g) than that from poplar lignin (25.95 and 15.79 mg/g, respectively). Simultaneously, the adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherm experiments indicated that the data were agreed well with the pseudo-second-order and Langmuir model, respectively. Moreover, after three cycles of desorption, the removal efficiencies of the MLS from larch and poplar lignin could still reach more than 98% and 96%, respectively. Therefore, the developed magnetic lignin-based hollow microspheres has shown a great potential as a low-cost, highly adsorptive and reusable adsorbent for the applications in the wastewater treatments

Pathological characterization of ADR-induced nephropathy in C57BL/6 mice with eNOS deficiency.

<p>PAS staining of sections from NS (A&amp;C) and ADR-injected (B&amp;D) wild type (A&amp;B) and eNOS-deficient (C&amp;D) mice at day 28. Masson trichrome staining of sections from NS (E&amp;G) and ADR-injected (F&amp;H) wild type (E&amp;F) and eNOS-deficient (G&amp;H) mice at day 28. eNOS-deficient mice with ADR-induced nephropathy exhibited well developed exudative (fibrin-cap) lesions, glomerular sclerosis, interstitial fibrosis and inflammation at day 28. Original magnifications, 400 X.</p

Functional characterization of ADR-induced nephropathy in C57BL/6 mice with eNOS deficiency.

<p><b>A:</b> Ratio of urinary protein/creatinine; <b>B:</b> Body weight; <b>C:</b> Ratio of kidney /body weight; <b>D:</b> Serum creatinine and <b>E:</b> Systolic blood pressure in NS- and ADR-injected mice. <i>Two-way ANOVA</i>; n = 5, data are means ± SD.</p

eNOS overexpression protecting podocytes from TNF-α-induced loss of synaptopodin.

<p>GFP eNOS – positive (GFP-eNOS⁺) and GFP-eNOS – negative (GFP-eNOS⁻) MMECs were obtained by FACS (A). Confocal microscopy of GFP in GFP-eNOS⁻ (B) and GFP-eNOS⁺ (C) MMECs. (D) Western blotting using anti-eNOS and anti-GFP antibodies to detect endogenous eNOS and overexpression of GFP-eNOS in GFP-eNOS⁻ and GFP-eNOS⁺ MMECs. (E) Conditioned media from GFP-eNOS⁻ and GFP-eNOS⁺ MMECs was added to podocytes in the presence or absence of TNF-α, western blotting demonstrated expression levels of synaptopodin 36 hours after TNF-α stimulation. (F) Quantification of expression levels of synaptopodin by western blotting. <i>One-way ANOVA</i>, data are means ± SD.</p