MAGNETIC PROTEIN HYDROGEL FOR DYE AND HEAVY METAL ADSORPTION

M. D'ORSO; P. MENDOZA ZELIS; C. MEIORIN; J. F. MARTUCCI

Congreso; III Congresso Brasileiro Interdisciplinar em Ciência e Tecnologia; 2022

Water pollution is a problem that af licts people throughout the world. Adsorption is themost widely used method to remove contaminants from water. This paper proposes an eco-friendlyprotein hydrogel as a potential adsorbent for water purification. Protein hydrogels are widelystudied due to their high adsorbent capacity. In this study, we developed magnetic proteinhydrogels based on gelatin and phycobiliproteins (PBPs) obtained from lyophilized commercialSpirulina platensis (SP) powder. The incorporation of PBPs was motivated by their chelatingcharacteristics, and the incorporation of magnetic particles (Fe3O4/γFe2O3) will allow the creationof magnetic biocompounds that may be afterwards removed from the medium.