Potential evaluation and perspectives on using sponge-like superabsorbent cryogels for onsite water treatment in emergencies

• Main Authors: Loo, Siew-Leng, Lim, Teik-Thye, Krantz, William B., Fane, Anthony G., Hu, Xiao
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering::Water treatment
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/106725; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/25105
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper reports and discusses the prospects of a novel approach for emergency water treatment using antibacterial PSA/Ag cryogels. The approach involves allowing the cryogel to swell in contaminated water after which the disinfected water can be recovered by a simple squeezing step. Employing this process allowed the cryogels to achieve enhanced disinfection compared to other Ag-modified materials. The cryogels could achieve more than two logs (99%) bacterial inactivation in natural water samples. The cryogels were robust and showed stable disinfection performance over 10 cycles indicating that they were highly reusable. These results indicate that the PSA/Ag cryogels offer excellent potential for applications requiring potable water production in response to emergencies or disasters.