Ultralight, multifunctional and recyclable bacterial cellulose/coir fiber composite foam for oil-water separation and thermal insulation.

Authors

Ting Teng, Yitong Zhao, Haolin Yang, Yuan Gao, Xinghai Zhou, Gang Wang, Peirong Guo, Huimin Zhang

Published in

Carbohydrate polymers. Volume 389. Pages 125665. Oct 01, 2026. Epub Jul 20, 2026.

Abstract

Bio-derived composite foams with lightweight, highly porous structures have attracted increasing attention for applications in biomedicine, sensing, thermal insulation, oil-water separation, and environmental remediation due to their sustainability and multifunctionality. In this work, we reported a novel composite foam (CBF), mainly composed of coir fiber, a cellulose fiber renowned for its excellent mechanical strength, durability, low density, and abundant availability as an agricultural waste. The obtained natural coir fiber-based foams owned a porous network skeleton with an ultralow density of 8.08 mg/cm³ and ultrahigh porosity of 99.28%, demonstrating low thermal conductivity (0.038 W/(m·K)), which is comparable to conventional bio-derived thermal insulation materials. After subsequent hydrophobic modification, the hydrophobic (a water contact angle of 147.4°) and oleophilic foam was capable of absorbing a variety of oils and organic solvents (60.63-164.83 g/g), showing good oil retention capacity and reusability. These results underscore the potential of the fiber-based foam as a multifunctional material for thermal management and environmental protection applications.

PMID:
42586691
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Aug 2026.

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