Context:
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has created an eco-friendly hydrogel to tackle the problem of microplastic contamination in water.
About
● Microplastics, posing significant threats to human health and the environment, can enter our bodies through water consumption.
● The three-layer polymer hydrogel, consisting of chitosan, polyvinyl alcohol, and polyaniline, forms an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) architecture.
● Infused with nanoclusters of copper substitute polyoxometalate (Cu-POM), the hydrogel can bind and degrade microplastics under UV light irradiation.
● The team ensured efficient microplastic removal and degradation by tracking their adsorption and degradation using fluorescent dye.
● The hydrogel exhibited high efficiency, removing about 95% and 93% of two different microplastic types at near-neutral pH levels.
Characteristics
● Hydrogels are three-dimensional networks composed of hydrophobic polymers synthesized by crosslinking water-soluble polymers.
● Hydrogels can retain a large quantity of water within their network without disturbing their original structure.
● This imparts flexibility and swelling properties to the hydrogel structures.
