Preparation and characterization of supercritical CO2 nanocellulose aerogels

This paper uses poplar wood chips as raw materials to prepare nanocellulose (NCC) by sulfuric acid hydrolysis, and then through physical gelling of inorganic salt solution, tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) replacement and supercritical CO2 drying to prepare the nanocellulose aerogels. The characterization analysis and performance test of nanocellulose aerogels were carried out by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), universal mechanical test machine, automatic specific surface area analyzer and thermogravimetric analyzer. The results show that the prepared nanocellulose aerogels are spherical white particles, and the internal structure of the aerogels is a three-dimensional network structure with no collapse, the specific surface area of the aerogels is between 263.5~358.73 cm2/g, and the diameter of the pores mainly distributes between 15~41 nm; as the mass fraction of nanocellulose increases, the compressive strength of the aerogels increases as well and reaches a maximum at 2.39 MPa, the nanocellulose aerogels with a mass fraction of 2.5% have a maximum adsorption capacity of 374 cm3/g. Copyright © 2018, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.