Capturing nitrosamines in aqueous solution by composited super-hydrophobic silicic xerogel

• New powerful TSNA trapper in tobacco solution.
• It can efficiently trap 60% of nitrosamines in tobacco solution.
• Fabrication core–shell composite through epitaxial growth.
• Tuning surface state of sorbent to accelerate liquid adsorption.
• Control the carcinogen pollution at source.

Super-hydrophobic silicic xerogel (SG) was prepared from methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and dimethyldimethoxysilane (DMDMS), and the optimized MTMS to DMDMS molar ratio was determined to be 3/2. To fabricate new effective nitrosamines sorbent in tobacco extract solution, SG was modified by epitaxial growth of mesoporous silica to form the coated composite named as MSGx with a large surface area (152–208 m2 g-1) and pore volume (0.133–0.162 mLg−1), and the new sorbent could capture 54–59% of nitrosamines in tobacco solution, superior to zeolite and mesoporous silica.

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