Interfacial engineered, hierarchically porous, and underwater superelastic nanofibrous aerogels with rime-mimetic structure for superior micropollutant extraction

Developing nanofibrous aerogels with high surface area, nanoscale porosity, and robust underwater stability has been considered as one of the most promising strategies for designing the next-generation of high-efficiency extraction media, yet still facing great challenges. Herein, we report a size rearrangement of porous organic polymers (POPs) into superelastic rime-mimetic structured aerogels based on bacterial cellulose nanofibers (BCNs)-assisted interfacial engineering strategy. This strategy facilitates micro-interlocking between POP and BCN, significantly enhancing the attaching strength of POP particles at the POP/BCN interface. Thus, the optimized aerogels (PNAs) exhibit excellent underwater elasticity and compression fatigue resistance (-0% plastic deformation after 500 compression cycles), as well as high BET surface area (305.44 m2/g) and hierarchical porosity (containing micro/meso/macropores), mainly due to the ultrahigh loading of POP particles (83.33 wt %). Given the possession of the abovementioned features and the careful selection of elution solvents guided by Hansen solubility parameter theory, PNAs exhibit a superior micropollutant adsorption capability (-250 mg/g) and elution efficiency (concentrate sample volume by 50 times). The successful preparation of such material could inspire the development of next-generation hierarchically porous nanofibrous aerogel-based extraction media for water treatment.