Influence of GO reinforcement on keratin based smart hydrogel and its application for emerging pollutants removal

PERALTA RAMOS, MARÍA LUZ; PÉREZ, CLAUDIO JAVIER; GONZÁLEZ, JOAQUÍN ANTONIO; COPELLO, GUILLERMO JAVIER; GALABURRI, GONZALO; VILLANUEVA, MARÍA EMILIA

Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering

Elsevier

Año: 2018 vol. 6 p. 7021 - 7028

2213-3437

In this work, the influence of graphene oxide (GO) reinforcement on keratin based smart hydrogel and itsapplication for the emerging pollutant ciprofloxacin removal was studied. Firstly, the obtained material wascharacterized by Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electronic Microscopy, Small angle X-ray Scattering andSwelling and Rheological behavior. The results showed that the keratin hydrogel and those nanocompositescontaining GO present stimuli responsive behavior by changing the swelling along with the pH. Keratin hydrogelsand the ones containing 0.5% of GO showed a similar behavior where swelling decreased between pH 6and 5. The introduction of GO at 2% changed this inflection point at a value between pH 7 and 6. Also, theswelling of the shrunk hydrogels was higher when containing 2% GO. This effect was probably due to the sterichindrance generated by the nanosheets and their functional groups, partially interfering with keratin chainsinteraction. The antibiotic was adsorbed in the different active sites in the hydrogel provided by the keratin andthe GO structures. After that, the composite adsorption isotherms against ciprofloxacin (CPX) and its kineticswere studied. The ability of the material to expand at high pH allowed a better desorption of the CPX. Thus,reusability presented a better performance when basic washings were used.