A Hierarchical Porous Aerogel Prepared from Conjugated Polymer for Rapid and Effective Removal of Organic Micro-Pollutants from Water

Water pollution caused by organic micro-pollutants is seriously harmful to aquatic ecosystem and human health. In this work, a hierarchical porous aerogel (HPAG) prepared from rigid conjugated polymers is used to remove organic micro-pollutants from water. Thanks to the hierarchical porous structure and rich pi electrons, HPAG showed a fast adsorption rate and high adsorption capacity for adsorbates. The maximum equilibrium adsorption capacity of HPAG for bisphenol A, 1-naphthylamine, and naphthalene is 60.5, 50.9 and 63.9 mg g-1 at 10 ppm, respectively, and the adsorption behaviors were in accordance with the Freundlich model. HPAG exhibited a high preference in adsorbing organic micro-pollutants with high hydrophobicity, and the removal efficiency for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons reached over 95%. The HPAG can be easily recycled and regenerated after washing with dichloromethane, and the adsorption performance maintained above 82% after 5 cycles. Hierarchical porous aerogel (HPAG) based on rigid conjugated polymer was used to efficiently remove 18 kinds of organic micro-pollutants from water, providing equilibrium adsorption capacity of up to 63.9 mg g-1 at 10 ppm and removal efficiency reaching over 95% for many polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. After a simple regeneration process, the aerogel can be recycled and reused.image