Super-Absorbent Hydrogels for Environmental Remediation

The removal of water and wastewater contaminants by adsorptive means has been shown to be very promising. Amongst different adsorbent materials, hydrogels have been found to be a good tool for eliminating both inorganic and organic toxic chemical substances from water and wastewater, because of swelling characteristics, bio-compatibility, non-toxicity, re-usability and high functionalities. From previous studies, it has been shown that hydrogels can be re-used and regenerated for up to 5 times, with only about 10-15% adsorption capacity loss. This chapter focuses on the viability of hydrogels and its modified forms for the treatment of water and wastewater that contains micro-pollutants like pharmaceuticals, pesticides, dyes and heavy metals. Specifically, the mechanisms of interaction/uptake, adsorption isotherm modelling, adsorption capacities and regeneration potentials of (modified) hydrogels for these selected water contaminants shall be discussed.