Sustainable Aerogels from Spent Coffee Grounds

D.H. Minh
National University of Singapore,
Singapore

Keywords: coffee waste, aerogel, sustainable

Summary:

Fully biodegradable aerogels from spent coffee grounds were successfully invented with different crosslinkers, such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and/or glutaraldehyde (GA). A sustainable and cost-effective fabrication was developed and optimized. In order to obtain superhydrophobic surface, silanization was done after aerogel fabrication to replace the hydroxyl group on the surface with silane groups. The developed coffee aerogels possess low density (0.014 – 0.048 g/cm3), super-hydrophobicity (120-140o), low thermal conductivity (0.038-0.048 W/mK), high oil absorption (12.7-72 g/g) and very elastic (compressive Young’s moduli, 0.7-3.8 kPa). The technology to processing This properties provides an approach to fabricate cost-effective and promising coffee aerogels used for several applications such as thermal insulation and absorption applications.