Soft foam-like UiO-66/Polydopamine/Bacterial cellulose composite for the removal of aspirin and tetracycline hydrochloride

[Display omitted] •The prepared UiO-66/PDA/BC shows three-dimensional nanostructure, high specific surface area and high hydrophilic.•The uniform coating of UiO-66 nanoparticles present cube shape and averaged size of 50 nm with uniform size distribution.•The foam- like aerogel can efficiently adsorb aspirin and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC), and can be easily recycled.•The synergetic effect of chemical adsorption and π − π interaction lead to higher sorption abilities. Recently, the alarming level of pharmaceuticals active compounds (PhACs) pollution has exerted serious threat to the environment. It is important but still a great challenge to develop an effective and efficient adsorbent for PhACs treatment due to their bioaccumulation, persistence, as well as potential toxicity. Here, soft foam-like UiO-66/polydopamine/bacterial cellulose (UiO-66/PDA/BC) with three-dimensional connected network structure and high hydrophilicity were prepared using biomass BC as scaffold. The uniform coating of UiO-66 nanoparticles with uniform size guarantees high surface area as well as active sites for the adsorption of target pollutants. Excellent adsorption performances are obtained towards aspirin (149 mg g−1) and TC (184 mg g−1), which are higher than a variety of similar materials previously reported. We further evaluated the adsorption mechanism by XPS and FTIR spectra. The results revealed that the efficient adsorption ability was mainly depended on the synergetic effect of chemical adsorption and π − π interaction. With the excellent reusability as well as stability, the aerogel shows great potential for removal of organic contaminant from water.