Aerogel materials from sugarcane bagasse: the effect of additives

Cellulose nano fibers (CNF) are being considered as potential material for producing aerogel, an advanced materials for filtration technology. In this study, CNF were extracted from the sugarcance bagasse (a common agricultural waste) using ultrasonic technology and then fabricated with different additives including polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene glycol (PEG) and graphene oxide (GO) to formulate aerogels. Various advanced techniques including polarized and scanning electron microscopy, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and texture analyzer were applied to elaborate on the physicochsemical properties of the products. The obtained results revealed that aerogel had low bulk density (0.032 kg/m3; 0.035 kg/m3 & 0.041 kg/m3) and a high porosity (96.89%; 97.06% & 98.61%) when combined with PVA, PEG and GO, respectively. Among investigated samples, aerogel fabricated with GO had the highest mechanical resistance as well as the best elasticity.