Plant-based natural biotemplates are increasingly gaining popularity for the development of catalytic filters in water treatment owing to their unique features, such as exquisite microstructures, renewable properties, and environmental friendliness. However, the development of catalytic filters, not limited to plant-based filters, to achieve both super-high water flux and excellent treatment efficiency, particularly under gravity-driven conditions, remains challenging. Therefore, herein, an efficient gravity-driven catalytic filter was fabricated using a naturally three-dimensional (3D) porous rattan biotemplate for water treatment. After reducing Ag(NH₃)₂ ⁺ ions via an in situ process that did not involve the addition of reductants or stabilizers, Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were immobilized in the inner microchannel of the porous rattan cane. The intrinsically aligned microchannels in the vascular bundles of rattan (diameter 24–420 μm) acted as reaction compartments for the immobilization and stabilization of Ag NPs. Furthermore, the 3D Ag/rattan filter exhibited excellent gravity-driven catalytic activity (up to 97.2% treatment efficiency for a high water flux of 7471 L m⁻² h⁻¹), good recyclability, high water permeability, and stability toward 4-nitrophenol reductions. These excellent properties were attributed to the synergistic effect of the evenly distributed nanosized Ag catalysts and microchannel structures of rattan. Rattan materials are abundantly available and naturally porous, and they can readily serve as cost-effective, nontoxic, biodegradable, and sustainable sources in numerous catalytic applications.

Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate (IPBC) is currently one of the most important fungicides widely used for industrial coatings and bamboo treatment. In this work, a controlled release composite with IPBC for inhibition of mold and stain fungi was prepared using enlarged halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) with layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of polyelectrolyte multilayers. The acid-treated HNTs retained their tubular structure with increased internal diameter, and IPBC loading efficiency was therefore increased to 24.4%, approximately three times the amount of raw HNTs (8.4%). In vitro drug release assay showed that IPBC could be released from HNTs in a sustainable manner with a total release amount of 33.8% over a period of 35 days. The release rate of IPBC could be further controlled by adjusting the number of LbL layers on the tubes and the released amount of IPBC could be limited to less than 10% in 100 days. An inhibition zone test indicated the as-prepared nanocomposites exhibited significant anti-fungal performance against three mold fungi (Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma viride, and Penicillium citrinum) and one stain fungus (Botryodiplodia theobromae). The results support the potential use of HNTs for a prolonged service life of bamboo products.

We developed a novel green approach for the in situ fabrication of Ag NPs in mesoporous TiO₂ films via the bamboo self-sacrificing reduction of Ag(NH₃)₂⁺ ions, which can inhibit fungal growth on the bamboo surface. Mesoporous anatase TiO₂ (MT) films were first synthesized on bamboo via a hydrothermal method. Then, Ag NPs with a 5.3 nm mean diameter were incorporated into the pore channels of optimal MT/bamboo (MTB) samples at room temperature without the addition of reducing agents, such that the Ag NPs were almost entirely embedded into the MT films. Our analysis indicated that the solubilized lignin from bamboo, which is rich in oxygen-containing functional groups, serves as a green reductant for reducing the Ag(NH₃)₂⁺ ions to Ag NPs. Antifungal experiments with Trichoderma viride under dark conditions highlighted that the antifungal activity of the Ag/MT/bamboo samples were greater than those of naked bamboo, MTB, and Ag/bamboo, suggesting that these hybrid nanomaterials produce a synergistic antifungal effect that is unrelated to photoactivity. The inhibition of Penicillium citrinum effectively followed a similar trend. This newly developed bamboo protection method may provide a sustainable, eco-friendly, and efficient method for enhancing the antifungal characteristics of traditional bamboo, having the potential to prolong the service life of bamboo materials, particularly under dark conditions.

This study investigated the effects of different adhesives, phenol formaldehyde (PF) and melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF), on the mechanical and fire properties of flame-retardant laminated bamboo lumber (LBL). The results demonstrated that the flame-retardant treatment using phosphorus–nitrogen–boron compounds endowed the LBL with excellent flame retardancy and smoke suppression properties, even though the bending strength and bond shear strength were slightly reduced. The PF-glued LBL exhibited superior mechanical and shear properties to the MUF-glued ones, primarily due to its higher processing temperature and deeper adhesive penetration. In addition, the MUF-glued flame-retardant LBL displayed better heat release reduction and smoke suppression properties than the PF-glued LBL, which resulted from the synergistic flame retardancy between the melamine element in MUF and the applied flame retardant. The analysis of the influence of adhesive type on the mechanical and fire properties of flame-retardant LBL holds significant importance for the future design and production of high-performance LBL material.