Eco-friendly fabrication of aerogels from cigarette butts for removal of oil spill and cationic dye in wastewater

Oil spills and dye pollution are currently severe problems that the world is facing due to their negative influences on the ecosystem. In this study, two novel promising and economical procedures for synthesizing high-value engineering aerogels from discarded cigarette butts are successfully developed. Cellulose acetate (CA) fibers separated from the cigarette waste are converted into aerogels via two eco-friendly methods: the sol-gel method with alkali-urea (AU) and the crosslinker method with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) followed by the freeze-drying process. The two types of aerogels both have a highly porous structure with a porosity of 96.88–98.01