Amino-functionalized bovine serum albumin amyloid fibrils aerogel for absorbing copper from water

Amyloid fibrils are promising nanomaterials for removing heavy metal ions from water, and it is urged to construct high adsorption capacity, easy separation, and environmentally friendly amyloid fibrils adsorbents. In this work, bovine serum albumin amyloid fibrils were fabricated, and then amino-functionalized bovine serum albumin amyloid fibrils (BFP-based) aerogels were constructed and used to remove Cu (II) from water. Adding branched polyethyleneimine effectively improves the mechanical properties and adsorption capacity of the adsorbents. The maximum adsorption capacity of BFP aerogel is 3.01 times higher than that of pure protein aerogel, which is 82.2 mg/g under the optimal condition. The fitting results showed that BFP-based aerogels were fitted well by the Freundlich model and pseudo-second kinetics model. Moreover, BFP-based adsorbents show good adsorption quantity for other heavy metal ions and organic pollutants. All these results indicated the potential of BFP-based adsorbents for removing heavy metal ions from water.