A thermo-responsive cellulose-based material (cellulose-g-PNIPAAm) was prepared by grafting N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) onto bagasse pulp cellulose via Ce (IV)-initiated free radical polymerization. The surfaces of the obtained cellulose-g-PNIPAAm paper showed a rapid wettability conversion from being hydrophilic (water contact angles (WCA) of 0°) at 25 °C to becoming hydrophobic (WCA of 134.2°) at 45 °C. Furthermore, the thermo-responsive mechanism of cellulose-g-PNIPAAm was examined by the in situ variable-temperature ¹³C NMR, ¹H NMR and AFM analysis. At the same time, the resulting cellulose paper was applied for a switchable separation of oil/water mixtures. Water can pass through the paper under 45 °C, while oil is kept on the paper. When the temperature is above 45 °C, oil can permeate through the paper, while water cannot pass through the water. Moreover, the paper exhibited excellent regeneration performance after five cycles and maintained its switchable wettability.

Microcrystalline cellulose pretreated with microwave-H ₂ O ₂ was introduced with carboxyl and amino groups to obtain a new promising bioadsorbent.

Biochar-amended soil cover (BSC) in landfills can improve the oxidation of methane. However, adding biochar can cause a larger amount of rainwater to enter the soil cover and landfill because it increases the permeability of the soil cover, which increases leachate production. Improving the hydrophobicity and waterproof ability of BSC is expected to reduce rainwater that goes into landfills. Silane coupling agent KH-570 is used to modify biochar to improve its hydrophobicity and waterproof ability after being added to the soil cover. The waterproofness of hydrophobic biochar-amended soil cover (HBSC) was studied by conducting a precipitation simulation test. Results showed that the optimum hydrophobicity of the surface-modified biochar was obtained when the mass fraction of KH-570 was 7%, the biochar dosage was 7 g, and the modification temperature was 60 °C. In these conditions, the contact angle was 143.99° and the moisture absorption rate was 0.10%. The analysis results of thermogravimetric, X-ray diffractometer and scanning electron microscopy before and after the biochar modification showed that KH-570 formed a hydrophobic organic coating layer on the biochar surface, indicating that the surface hydrophobic modification of biochar was successfully carried out by silane coupling agent. The waterproof ability of HBSC was significantly better than that of BSC in the simulated precipitation test.