Hydrogel Applications to Microbiological Water Treatment

ABSTRACT

One of the requirements for the treatment of drinking water is the removal of pathogenic microorganisms. Typically, the most used techniques apply inorganic nanoparticles or chlorine release precursors to inactivate bacteria. While these treatments are very effective, they tend to show a decrease in antimicrobial activity over time, releasing potentially toxic ions and contributing to bacterial resistance. In this sense, the development of hydrogel-based materials has become a potential alternative for water disinfection. The synthesis and functionalization of hydrogels have been proven to improve the global performance of microorganism retention. Our work provides an overview of the synthesis and functionalization of hydrogel-based materials, their advantages and limitations, and the latest research on the use of hydrogels for water disinfection. The future panorama of hydrogel-based materials applicability for water treatment is also provided. The main challenge to expand the use of hydrogels in water treatment is the lack of research assessing the feasibility of large-scale applicability of these materials, considering real systems. Most of the studies carried out experiments at laboratory scale with controlled situations, in which interactions between microorganisms and real world contaminants were not considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Water purification
• microorganism inactivation
• hydrogel
• adsorption

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

AcA –Acrylic acid

Ag/rGO–Silver/reduced graphene oxide

AgNPs –Silver nanoparticles

CDs –Carbon dots

CS –Chitosan

GG –Guar gum

GO –Graphene oxide

g-C₃N₄ –Graphitic carbon nitride

MOF –Metal-organic frameworks

NIPPAM – Isopropylacrylamide

NPGESNC-AcA – Novel porous gelatin-silver/AcA

OA-POSS – Octa-aminopropyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane chloride

OEG-DMA – Oligoethylene glycol dimethacrylate

PAA -Polyacrylic acid

PBI –Perylene bisimide

PBS –Phosphate buffer

PCDs –Polymerizable carbon dots

PEI –Polyethyleneimine

PGA –Polyglycolic acid

PGE-AcA – Gelatin/acrylic acid

PLA –Polylactic acid

PMDETA – N,N,N′,N″,N″-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine

PVA –Polyvinyl alcohol

PVP –Polyvinyl pyrrolidone

QA –Quaternary ammonium

QAS –Quaternary ammonium salt

rGO –Reduced graphene oxide

ROS –Reactive oxygen species

ZnO NWs – Zinc oxide nanowires

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support in part by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – Brasil (CNPQ).

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.