Volume 11 Issue 2
May  2026
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Article Navigation >  Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts  > 2026  >  11(2): 100247
Shengtai Hou, Junjie Wang, Qihan Wang, Zehua Wang, Meitong Liu, Ran Ma, Jiahua Zhao, Hongjie Wang. H2O as an efficient green initiator to construct renewable hydrophobic porous materials for pollutant removal[J]. Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, 2026, 11(2): 100247. doi: 10.1016/j.jobab.2026.100247
Citation: Shengtai Hou, Junjie Wang, Qihan Wang, Zehua Wang, Meitong Liu, Ran Ma, Jiahua Zhao, Hongjie Wang. H2O as an efficient green initiator to construct renewable hydrophobic porous materials for pollutant removal[J]. Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, 2026, 11(2): 100247. doi: 10.1016/j.jobab.2026.100247
shu

H2O as an efficient green initiator to construct renewable hydrophobic porous materials for pollutant removal

doi: 10.1016/j.jobab.2026.100247
  • a.

    Hebei Key Laboratory of Close-to-Nature Restoration Technology of Wetlands, School of Eco-Environment, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China

  • b.

    Engineering Research Center of Ecological Safety and Conservation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Xiong'an New Area) of MOE, China

  • c.

    School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

More Information
  • Corresponding author: E-mail address: Housht@hbu.edu.cn (S. Hou); E-mail address: wanghj@hbu.edu.cn (H. Wang)
  • Received Date: 2025-10-21
  • Accepted Date: 2026-02-12
  • Rev Recd Date: 2026-01-22
    • Available Online: 2026-02-20
  • Publish Date: 2026-05-01
    Abstract
  • The utilization of H2O as solvent is widely favored in the field of material synthesis due to its environmentally friendly properties. However, in the synthesis process of renewable hydrophobic materials, the limited solubility of containing hydroxyl carbohydrate in H2O poses challenges to achieving effective collisions. Herein, H2O-assisted grinding facilitated the generation of active hydroxyl groups in sodium methylsilicate, thereby promoting condensation or encapsulation with diversified substrates (e.g., molecules, lignin, cellulose, fulvic acid, plants, hydroxide, metal salts, elementary substance, oxides, and metal-organic framework-5 (MOF-5)) through node-node, node-line, node-sheet connections and surface-modified strategies. The reactions were catalyzed exclusively by H2O and accompanied by the CO2 fixation. The first utilization of sodium methylsilicate enabled the successful fabrication of organic/plant/metal-based hydrophobic porous materials and silicon-modified materials from renewable and cost-effective substrates through mechanical activation. H2O-assisted grinding enabled the prepared hydrophobic porous materials with surface areas of 129–388 m2/g and yields of 66%–90%, overcoming challenges in liquid-phase methods. Notably, H2O in the untreated plant tissues can initiate the system to directly synthesize renewable hydrophobic porous materials and capture CO2 from the atmosphere to produce NaHCO3 as the byproduct. Meanwhile, the obtained hydrophobic material has been successfully applied in oil-water separation (permeability of petroleum ether > 801 L/(m2·h)), medical waste adsorption (propofol separation rate > 85%), pollutant degradation (Rhodamine B, Congo red, and Nile red dye removal rate of 90%–99.99%), and flood control engineering (remained well waterproof after 10 days). The work proposed a general and facile H2O-assisted grinding strategy to prepare various renewable hydrophobic materials, enabling efficient utilization of naturally abundant hydroxyl-containing renewable resources and demonstrating promising potential for environmental applications.

     

    • Author contributions
    Funding acquisition: Hongjie Wang, Shengtai Hou. Methodology: Hongjie Wang, Shengtai Hou. Validation: Hongjie Wang, Shengtai Hou, Junjie Wang, Zehua Wang. Visualization: Hongjie Wang, Shengtai Hou, Qihan Wang, Meitong Liu, Jiahua Zhao. Writing-review and editing: Shengtai Hou, Junjie Wang, Ran Ma. Conceptualization: Shengtai Hou. Writing-original draft: Shengtai Hou, Junjie Wang, Qihan Wang, Meitong Liu, Jiahua Zhao. Data curation: Junjie Wang. Formal analysis: Junjie Wang. Investigation: Junjie Wang. Software: Zehua Wang, Jiahua Zhao.
    Availability of data
    All data is incorporated into the article and its online supplementary material. The data underlying this article are available in the article and in its online supplementary material.
    Declaration of competing interest
    The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
    Supplementary materials
    Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.jobab.2026.100247.
    Peer review under the responsibility of Editorial Office of Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts.
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