[en] In the context of sustainable development, the exploration of renewable, biodegradable, and environmentally friendly polymer aerogels have emerged as a significant area of research. Herein, we report a facile synthesis of fully degradable polylactic acid (PLLA)/poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) composite aerogels via 1,4-dioxane-assisted co-dissolution, followed by freeze-drying and phase separation techniques. The resulting aerogels feature a hierarchically porous structure with 98.6% porosity and vertically aligned channels, formed by controlled solvent crystallization during the freezing process. This unique architectural configuration integrates PLLA's oil-retention capability with PBAT's elasticity, yielding adsorption capacities of 13.6 g/g for n-hexane and 31.5 g/g for carbon tetrachloride. Notably, the aerogel retains ~97.5% stress and height recovery after 100 cycles of 50% strain compression, overcoming pure PLLA's inherent brittleness. It also maintains 96.5% the oil-water separation efficiency after 20 c centrifugal desorption cycles. 1,4-Dioxane promotes the compatibility of PLLA and PBAT, improving the interfacial compatibility and effectively avoiding the structural defects usually caused by phase separation. This research provides a scalable, filler-free approach to fabricate the high-performance biodegradable aerogels, bridging environmental sustainability and practical functionality for oily wastewater remediation.
Disciplines :
Chemistry
Author, co-author :
Sun, Xinkai; School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China
Jiang, Xinying; School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China
Xie, Fei; School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China
Yao, Pengju; School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China
Zhang, Yi; School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China
Yang, Hui; Zhejiang-California International Nanosystems Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 318000, China
Bittencourt, Carla ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté des Sciences > Service de Chimie des Interactions Plasma-Surface
Li, Wenjiang; School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China. Electronic address: liwj@tjut.edu.cn
Language :
English
Title :
A biodegradable poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA)/polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate (PBAT) composite aerogel for continuous oil-water separation.
Publication date :
01 February 2026
Journal title :
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
R400 - Institut de Recherche en Science et Ingénierie des Matériaux
Funders :
Tianjin University of Technology F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique
Funding text :
This work was supported by Tianjin University of Technology - Yulin City (Xingye) Calcium-based Materials Research Center; CB thanks the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research under the FRFC contract CDR J001019. CB is a Senior Researcher of the National Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS, Belgium).
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