Preparation of Porous Copolymer via SPI/Agarose Pickering HIPE for MB Adsorption

To address the challenge of dye wastewater treatment, this study proposes a fully natural polymer-based high internal phase Pickering emulsion (HIPE) template strategy for preparing porous materials to adsorb methylene blue (MB). This method innovatively combines soy protein isolate (SPI) with agarose (AG) to form a three-dimensional network between the two biopolymers. This structure enhances interfacial membranes and network bridges, significantly improving the emulsion's interfacial viscoelasticity and thermal stability. Based on this emulsion template, an integral porous material (AM-AA-SSS-PM) with a three-dimensional interconnected structure was successfully fabricated. Under initial conditions of 100 mg/L concentration, pH 7, 45 °C, and a dosage of 7 g/L, the MB removal rate can reach 99.07%. After five cycles, the adsorption efficiency remains at 96.26%, and the material exhibits excellent anti-interference performance in multi-ion coexisting systems. The adsorption process follows pseudo-first-order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm model, primarily governed by the synergistic effects of electrostatic interactions, hydrogen bonding, pore filling, and π-π stacking. This study not only provides a novel approach for designing green, highly efficient biobased adsorbents but also offers theoretical insights into the composite stabilization mechanism of HIPE systems.