(396e) Micelle-Laden Hydrogel Microparticles for the Removal of Hydrophobic Micropollutants

Micropollutants, including various emerging contaminants which occur at low concentration in water, are ubiquitous and hazardous to the ecosystem over long periods of time. Their chemical diversity and low concentrations make it difficult to remove them from water using current methods like activated carbon adsorption. This talk introduces hydrogel-based polymeric absorbents containing immobilized micelles for the removal of a broad class of hydrophobic micropollutants from water. The micelles have hydrophobic cores, into which hydrophobic micropollutants can easily partition. To speed uptake by increasing surface area, an off-the-shelf microfluidic device is used to prepare monomer microdroplets, which are polymerized to form absorbent microparticles. NMR spectroscopy is used to study cross-linked hydrogel formation, and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations help optimize hydrogel composition. Hydrophobic micropollutants are rapidly removed by our hydrogels, with mass transfer coefficients greater than those determined for a commercially available activated carbon used for water purification. Finally, this talk will discuss a sustainable and easy method of regenerating spent absorbent, which has so far not been possible with commercial absorbents.