Syntheses of PAM microgel surfacely covered with alkyl quaternary ammonium surfactant/Keggin-type polyoxometalate complexes

Clearance of methylene blue by CdS enhanced composite hydrogel materials

Hydrogel material is considered to be one of the effective adsorbents widely used to remove organic pollutants. However, the poor mechanical properties of some hydrogels limit their applications. Herein, we prepared composite hydrogels, for which acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AM) were cross-linked and polymerised as the main substrate with adsorption function, while CdS nanoparticles were mainly used as reinforced material. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), two-dimensional infrared vibrational echo spectroscopy (2D-IR), and thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) were used to determine the physical and chemical structures of the hydrogels. The effects of the composition of AA, AM, and CdS on the mechanical properties and adsorption behaviours of the hydrogels were investigated. Besides, based on the great potential photocatalytic application value for wastewater remediation under the sunlight of CdS, the influence of the CdS doping amount on the photocatalytic property was also studied. As a result, when the mass ratio of AA to AM was 5:5, the hydrogel showed the best mechanical properties, and along with increasing the amount of CdS, the mechanical strength of the hydrogel was significantly enhanced from 0.445 MPa to 1.014 MPa. Besides, the composite hydrogels showed high adsorption and photocatalytic degradation synergistic clearance effect on methylene blue. Thus, the introduction of CdS photocatalytic nanoparticles may be an efficient and economical approach towards bifunctional hydrogel materials with enhanced mechanical property and photocatalytic degradation for wastewater remediation.

Microfluidically fabricated pH-responsive anionic amphiphilic microgels for drug release

Novel amphiphilic microgels with hydrophobic and hydrophilic monomer units on the polymer chains were fabricated with an on-chip polymerisation methodology using a novel chip design.

Tailoring pH-responsive acrylic acid microgels with hydrophobic crosslinks for drug release

Amphiphilic microgels that were able to encapsulate and release both hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties were fabricated via a new methodology using a lab-on-a-chip device.