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[Display omitted] • Elastic brushite/polyethyleneimine/nanofibrillated cellulose aerogel was developed. • The coupling of brushite and polyethyleneimine enhanced adsorption property. • PNFCA/BRU-0.2 exhibited high selectivity for Cu(II) with 332.66 mg/g. • The continuous flow purification of copper-containing wastewater was realized. • PNFCA/BRU-0.2 could block the toxicity of heavy metals to crops. To achieve efficient removal of copper(II) from heavy metal wastewater, designing an eco-friendly and low-cost adsorbent is highly desirable. Here, a novel air- and underwater shape-memory cellulose aerogel was reported via coupling brushite and polyethyleneimine (PEI)-modified nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) for selectively adsorbing Cu(II) ions. The adsorption kinetic and isotherm studies were consistent with pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir model, indicating the removal of Cu(II) was a monolayer chemisorption process. Benefiting from the open three-dimensional (3D) framework structure and abundant exposed active sites, such compressible aerogel exhibited excellent adsorption capacity of 332.66 mg/g for Cu(II). In addition, the developed aerogel could be conveniently used as a continuous flow filter for successive purification of industrial wastewater, where the up-to-standard treatment volume was about 5.6 L. The Cu(II)-loaded aerogel could be regenerated after being eluted by 0.1 M EDTA-2Na, and its structure, shapeability and selective adsorption properties were hardly affected even after 8 consecutive cycles. Mechanistic analysis confirmed that the surface complexation, ion exchange and chemical deposition were the main driving forces for the superior adsorption performance. Finally, PNFCA/BRU could inhibit the contamination of crops by heavy metals, which was a great safeguard for wheat growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • SA/PEI-0.25 aerogel showed high elastic, stability and adsorption performance. • The maximum adsorption capacities of Cr(VI) and Cd(II) were 678.67 and 464.23 mg/g. • The fixed-bed continuous filtration of Cr(VI) and Cd(II) wastewater was realized. • SA/PEI-0.25 aerogel reduced the toxicity of heavy metal ions to rice. • The adsorption mechanisms of Cr(VI) and Cd(II) were investigated. Herein, an elastic polyethyleneimine/sodium alginate aerogel was designed by a one-step freeze-drying method. The 3D honeycomb-like structure endowed it excellent compressibility and plentiful exposed adsorption sites to accelerate Cr(VI) and Cd(II) adsorption. The adsorption processes matched the pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models, and the saturated adsorption capacity for Cr(VI) and Cd(II) was 678.67 and 464.23 mg/g, respectively. The obtained aerogel still expressed superior removal performance for Cr(VI) and Cd(II) even in the coexistent of multiple interfering factors and maintained stable adsorption capacity at least after 5 cycles. Importantly, the elastic cylindrical aerogel (∼0.59 g) could achieve dynamic filtration of industrial wastewater containing Cr(VI) and Cd(II) in fix-bed column system with corresponding effective treatment volume of 4.47 and 3.25 L, respectively. The reasonable mechanisms for the adsorption behaviors of heavy metals on the as-prepared aerogel was investigated via FTIR, XPS and Density functional theory (DFT), which could be attributed to the surface electrostatic adsorption, chelation and reduction effects. Eventually, the ecological assessment verified that eco-friendly SA/PEI aerogel had a powerful auxiliary effect on the anti-fouling growth of rice. Overall, such novel biomass aerogel adsorbent possessed great application potential and theoretical guiding significance for the purification of heavy metal wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]