Abstract
Industrialization and urbanization have led to water pollution. Pollutants such as metals, oils, and organic dyes can cause serious harm to the environment and human health. Adsorption has been proposed as a suitable method for removing contaminants thank to its efficiency, low cost, and simple operation. In this study, the aerogel from banana-derived biomass, paper waste, and polyvinyl alcohol has been successfully fabricated using a freeze-drying process for water treatment. The physico-chemical properties including morphology and chemical structures of the obtained aerogel were characterized by scanning electron microscope, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The fabricated aerogels have low density of 0.0235-0.0297 g/cm3 and extremely high porosity of 97.87-98.37 %. These aerogels exhibit great capability in oil absorption (27.27-32.86 g/g), in methylene blue adsorption (4.23-6.69 mg/g), and in Cu2+ adsorption (61.68-85.45 mg/g). Hence, this type of aerogel is a promising candidate that can be applied for water treatment.
