Abstract：
Economically and efficiently removing organic pollutants from water is still a challenge in wastewater treatment. Utilizing environmentally friendly and readily available protein-based natural polymers to develop aerogels with effective removal performance and sustainable regeneration capability is a promising strategy for adsorbent design. Here, a robust and cost-effective method using inexpensive β-lactoglobulin (BLG) as raw material was proposed to fabricate BLG-based aerogels. Firstly, photocurable BLG-based polymers were synthesized by grafting glycidyl methacrylate. Then, a cross-linking reaction, including photo-crosslinking and salting-out treatment, was applied to prepared BLG-based hydrogels. Finally, the BLG-based aerogels with high porosity and ultralight weight were obtained after freeze-drying. The outcomes revealed that the biocompatible BLG-based aerogels exhibited effective removal performance for a variety of organic pollutants under perfectly quiescent conditions, and could be regenerated and reused many times via a simple and rapid process of acid washing and centrifugation. Overall, this work not only demonstrates that BLG-based aerogels are promising adsorbents for water purification but also provides a potential way for the sustainable utilization of BLG.
摘要：
经济有效地从水中去除有机污染物仍然是废水处理中的挑战。利用环境友好且易于获得的基于蛋白质的天然聚合物开发具有有效去除性能和可持续再生能力的气凝胶是吸附剂设计的有前途的策略。这里,提出了一种使用廉价的β-乳球蛋白（BLG）作为原料的可靠且具有成本效益的方法来制造基于BLG的气凝胶。首先,通过接枝甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酯合成了可光固化的BLG基聚合物。然后，交联反应，包括光交联和盐析处理，应用于制备的BLG基水凝胶。最后,冷冻干燥后获得了具有高孔隙率和超轻重量的BLG基气凝胶。结果表明，生物相容性BLG基气凝胶在完全静止的条件下对各种有机污染物表现出有效的去除性能，并且可以通过简单快速的酸洗和离心过程再生和重复使用多次。总的来说,这项工作不仅证明了基于BLG的气凝胶是用于水净化的有前途的吸附剂，而且为BLG的可持续利用提供了潜在的途径。
