Affiliation:
1. Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems Università Ca' Foscari Venezia Via Torino 155 30172 Venice Mestre Italy
2. Department of Architecture and Industrial Design Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” Via San Lorenzo, Abbazia di San Lorenzo 81031 Aversa Italy
3. Department of Chemistry Sapienza University of Rome Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 00185 Rome Italy
4. Department of Physics Sapienza University of Rome Piazzale Aldo Moro 2 00185 Rome Italy
Abstract
AbstractIn contrast to conventional non‐biobased adsorbents, lignin emerges as a cost‐effective and environmentally benign alternative for water treatment. This study identifies unexpected and unpredicted multifunctional properties of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs). LNPs, which are prepared by simple physical processes, demonstrated for the first time to behave as multifunctional materials able to adsorb and photodegrade methylene blue (MB) in aqueous medium upon UV irradiation. Furthermore, the synthetic approach adopted to synthesize LNPs – and therefore their surface properties – strongly affects their performances. More specifically, LNPs obtained by solvent‐antisolvent nanoprecipitation (SLNPs) show the highest MB adsorption properties (98 % removal), reaching a maximum adsorption capacity of 43.0 mg g−1, and the fastest adsorption kinetics with respect to other lignin‐based adsorbents. Conversely, hydrotropic LNPs (HLNPs) exhibit exceptional photocatalytic activity, resulting in 98 % MB degradation over 6 hours of UV irradiation, combined with the ability to be easily recycled and reused. The present effort paves the way for the use of LNPs as efficient multifunctional materials able to perform concurrently adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of dye pollutants, toward the creation of a sustainable biobased water treatment platform.
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