Cellulose hydrogel functionalized titanate microspheres with self-cleaning for efficient purification of heavy metals in oily wastewater

Heavy metal pollution containing large amounts of oil pollutants is becoming one of the major water pollution categories. The presence of oil can seriously hinder the performance of existing heavy metal ion scavengers. In order to change this embar-rassment, a self-cleaning titanate hydrogel micro-sphere is developed and applied to the treatment of oily heavy metal wastewater. Gel functionalized titanate microspheres are prepared by a simple sol–gel process through ionic liquid dissolved cellulose solution as raw materials. As a result, the hybrid hydrogel microspheres inherit and integrate the intrin-sic properties of both titanate and cellulose hydrogels,and exhibit an excellent ability to handle this oily wastewater.