Biocompatible Self-Healing Hydrogels Based On Boronic Acid-Functionalized Polymer And Laponite Nanocomposite Applied For Water Pollutant Removal

Abstract The problem of global water pollution is becoming more and more severe, among which organic dyes and heavy metal ions are two typical types of the most common pollutants. The adsorption method for water purification and wastewater treatment is widely studied and applied. Hydrogel has unique advantages in the field of adsorption due to its three-dimensional porous structure. In this paper, a new type of self-healing hydrogels based on reversible covalent bond were prepared by mixing poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and 2-aminophenylboronic acid modified polyacrylic acid (PAA-2APBA). In addition, the introduction of laponite nanoparticles into the hydrogel can increase both the mechanical strength and adsorption efficiency. This low-cost PAA-2APBA/PVA/laponite nano-composite hydrogel could efficiently remove the organic dyes and heavy metal ions in model waste water through simple immersion, which makes it have application prospects in the fields of both biomedical and environmental engineering.