Composite hydrogels based on polyvinyl alcohol and neat or modified bentonite for dye removal from wastewater

BONDER, THIBAUT ; SANCHEZ, LAURA; OLLIER, ROMINA; ALVAREZ, VERA A.; MERINO, DANILA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XVI Latin American Symposium on Polymers and XIV Ibero American Congress on Polymers; 2018

INTEMA

The attention of many scientists recently focused on the development of adsorbent materials for water remediation. Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymer networks with high water absorption capabilities, which have played an important role in environment remediation field.PVA is a water soluble biodegradable polymer with many applications. Clay minerals are two-dimensional layered materials with peculiar physicochemical properties. The interlayer spaces, surfaces and edges of clays provide sites to host, stabilize and tune their properties thereby leading to the formation of a wide variety of nanomaterials. Thus, suitable functionalization of clays represents a promising strategy to design new materials with tailored features for technological applications. Moreover, clays can be confined in polymer matrices to form a class of advanced nanocomposites that would possess exceptional thermal, mechanical and adsorption properties.In this work, strategic preparation of PVA/bentonite nanocomposite hydrogels has led to a variety of adsorbents for dye removal from wastewater. Therefore, the modification of bentonite by acid activation and cation exchange was firstly accomplished. PVA/clay composite hydrogels were subsequently prepared by an innocuous physical crosslinking method. These materials were thermally and morphologically characterized, and then tested as adsorbents for the removal of cationic and anionic dyes.