Robust shape-retaining nanocellulose-based aerogels decorated with silver nanoparticles for fast continuous catalytic discoloration of organic dyes

Nanocellulose-based composite aerogel for fast continuous catalytic discoloration of methylene blue and its mechanism. [Display omitted] •Eco-friendly CNF-based composite aerogels were prepared.•The composite aerogel showed excellent stability and shape-retaining in water.•The porous aerogel as the matrix enabled excellent catalytic performance.•The composite aerogel was successfully used for continuous dye discoloration. In this work we present a green method to prepare aerogel membranes based on cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) crossed-linked with poly (ethylene imine) (PEI) and further decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). The nanosized Ag NPs were reduced and immobilized on the surface of the pore walls inside the aerogel. The as-prepared composite aerogel membrane showed excellent continuous catalytic discoloration of aqueous cationic and anionic dye solutions in batch and flow filtration tests. Moreover, the aerogel membrane exhibited very stable catalytic activity with discoloration efficiency at as high as 98% after 10 times reuse and the water permeance was high, up to 5 × 104 L·m−2 h−1. Interestingly, the aerogel membrane showed excellent shape recovery in water and no obvious deterioration of the structure was observed during long time testing. Therefore, the obtained aerogel membranes showed great potential in waste water treatment and catalytic applications.