# In Situ Anchored, Ultrasmall, Oxygen Vacancy-Rich TiO2−x on Carbonized Bacterial Cellulose for the Efficient Adsorption and Separation of Organic Pollutants

## TL;DR

Researchers developed a new method to create a highly effective adsorbent for removing organic dyes from wastewater using modified bacterial cellulose.

## Contribution

A novel in situ anchoring strategy for oxygen vacancy-rich TiO2−x on carbonized bacterial cellulose is introduced for efficient organic pollutant separation.

## Key findings

- The TiO2−x/CBC adsorbent achieved a high adsorption capacity of 101.4 mg/g for methylene blue.
- The system showed a 97.07% separation efficiency for MB/MO solutions at an optimized carbonization temperature of 300 °C.
- The adsorbent retained over 86% of its efficiency after four regeneration cycles.

## Abstract

Superior selective adsorption of organic dye is still a big challenge in the process of dye wastewater treatment. Meanwhile, low-price and environmentally friendly biomass-based adsorbents show huge potential in the fields of separation and purification. In this study, we adopted the “hydrolysis–calcination method” to develop a novel in situ anchoring strategy for ultrasmall TiO2−x on carbonized bacterial cellulose (CBC), which was derived from natural bacterial cellulose. Notably, 3D networks of porous CBC played a dual role for both providing hydrolytic sites and controlling the oxygen vacancies (Vo) of TiO2−x. As for the single-dye adsorption, the TiO2−x/CBC had a strong adsorption ability (101.4 mg/g) for removing methylene blue (MB), which was much higher than that of methyl orange (MO), malachite green (MG), rhodamine B (RhB), and tetracyclines (TC). Moreover, under the optimized carbonization temperature (Tc) of 300 °C, the TiO2−x/CBC-300 exhibited an outstanding separation efficiency of 97.07% for the MB/MO solution. Detailed analysis confirmed that Tc was a key regulator for adjusting the Vo concentration, which directly influenced the surface charge density and, further, the separation efficiency of TiO2−x/CBC. Additionally, the used adsorbent could be easily regenerated from washing by ethanol. After 4 regenerations, the adsorption efficiency declined only by 6.9% after 20 min and 13.6% after 120 min adsorption, respectively. Ultimately, this oxygen vacancy-rich TiO2−x/BC system illuminated good prospects for mixed dye wastewater adsorption and separation.