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    Colloid-Mediated Fabrication of a 3D Pollen Sponge for Oil Remediation Applications

    Year: 2021

    Journal: Adv. Funct. Mater., Volume 31, JUN

    Authors: Hwang, Youngkyu; Ibrahim, Mohammed Shahrudin Bin; Deng, Jingyu; Jackman, Joshua A.; Cho, Nam-Joon

    Organizations: MOTIE (Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy) in Korea, under the Fostering Global Talents for Innovative Growth Program [P0008746]; SKKU Research Fellowship Program of Sungkyunkwan University

    Keywords: 3D scaffolds; biological materials; colloids; pollen grains; porous materials

    There is tremendous interest in developing 3D scaffolds from natural materials for a wide range of healthcare, energy, photonic, and environmental science applications. To date, most natural materials that are used to make 3D scaffolds consist of fibril structures; however, it would be advantageous to explore the development of scaffolds from natural materials with distinct supramolecular structures. Herein, the fabrication of a mechanically responsive pollen sponge that exhibits tunable 3D scaffold properties and is useful for oil remediation applications is reported. By using pollen-based microgel particles as colloidal building blocks, the sponge fabrication process is optimized by tuning the processing conditions during freeze-drying and thermal annealing steps. Stearic acid functionalization transforms the pollen sponge into a hydrophobic scaffold that can readily and repeatedly absorb oil and other organic solvents from contaminated water sources, with similar performance levels to commercial, synthetic polymer-based absorbents and an improved environmental footprint.
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