The present disclosure generally relates to a scalable, green process for producing non-toxic, all-cellulose super absorbent hydrogels that form instantly after cross-linking. A super absorbent hydrogel can be produced by physical mixing of water-soluble carboxyalkyl polysaccharides such carboxymethyl cellulose and negatively-charged cellulose nanocrystals resulting in instantaneous gelation. Cellulose nanocrystals act as effective cross-linkers when physically mixed with carboxymethyl cellulose in an aqueous medium. The resulting hydrogel possesses excellent absorption properties, and has applications in a wide range of products from hygiene products to medical and industrial super absorbent products.

A device for purifying drinking water in multiple stages by combining orthogonal purification technologies in one module is described, where the device comprises a housing, a water inlet opening, a water outlet opening, a hollow cylinder which is filled with activated carbon, and a hollow cylinder with a semipermeable wall, wherein the hollow cylinder contains a chelating bactericidal gel or a chelating and bactericidal gel for removing heavy metals or bacteria or for removing heavy metals and bacteria.

The present disclosure relates to a method for preparing a super absorbent polymer that can appropriately control the water content of the super absorbent polymer by hydration or the like to suppress crushing or the like during transfer, and also can suppress deterioration of physical properties, such as production of giant particles and nonuniformity of water content during hydration step.

Disclosed is a method of decontamination by exposing a zirconium oxy(hydroxide) aerogel to a liquid, vapor, or gaseous sample suspected of containing a phosphonate compound. The aerogel may be doped with Fe.sup.3+ ions, Ce.sup.3+ ions, or SO.sub.4.sup.2− ions. The aerogel may be made by: providing a solution of ZrCl.sub.4; FeCl.sub.3, CeCl.sub.3, or Zr(SO.sub.4).sub.2; and a solvent; adding a cyclic ether to the solution to form a gel; infiltrating the gel with liquid carbon dioxide; applying a temperature and pressure to form supercritical fluid carbon dioxide; and removing the carbon dioxide for form an aerogel.

A product includes a highly adsorptive structure comprising: a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises a plurality of microchannels; and a carbon aerogel adhered to the substrate. The carbon aerogel is characterized by having physical characteristics of in situ formation on the substrate. Moreover, An adsorptive cooling system includes: a first highly adsorptive structure positioned to receive thermal energy from a thermal energy source, the first highly adsorptive structure comprising: a first substrate; and a first carbon aerogel adhered to the first substrate; a second highly adsorptive structure positioned to receive thermal energy from the thermal energy source, the second highly adsorptive structure comprising: a second substrate; and a second carbon aerogel adhered to the second substrate. The first substrate and/or the second substrate independently comprise a plurality of microchannels.

The present invention discloses novel porous polymeric compositions comprising random copolymers of amides, imides, ureas, and carbamic-anhydrides, useful for the synthesis of monolithic bimodal microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels. It also discloses methods for producing said microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels by the reaction of a polyisocyanate compound and a polycarboxylic acid compound, followed by pyrolytic carbonization, and by reactive etching with CO.sub.2 at elevated temperatures. Also disclosed are methods for using the microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels in the selective capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide.

A magnetic adsorbent, preparation method therefor and application thereof. The magnetic adsorbent is made by loading a weakly material with high adsorption capacity, an iron-based gel, onto a strongly magnetic ferrite material with low adsorption capacity by means of in-situ reaction. The magnetic adsorbent is used for removing heavy metal pollutants and phosphate pollutants from water.

Solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbents and liquid chromatography (LC) stationary phases are provided, as well as methods of fabricating the same. The SPE sorbents and LC stationary phases can use microcrystalline cellulose particles as the substrate and sol-gel sorbent coating technology as the polymer/sorbent immobilization technology. The SPE sorbents and LC stationary phases are stable in a pH range of 1-13 and at a temperature of up to 350° C.

A process for producing superabsorbents, comprising polymerization of a monomer solution and thermal surface postcrosslinking, wherein the monomer solution comprises at least 0.75% by weight of a hydroxyphosphonic acid or salts thereof, calculated on the basis of the total amount of monomer used, and at least 0.09% by weight of aluminum cations, calculated on the basis of the total amount of polymer particles used, is added to the polymer particles before, during or after the thermal surface postcrosslinking.

A nitric oxide generator generates nitric oxide from a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen such as air treated by a pulsating electrical discharge. The desired concentration of nitric oxide is obtained by controlling at least one of a frequency of the pulsating electrical discharge and duration of each electrical discharge pulse.