A Possibility of Heavy-Metal Recycling by Utilizing Hydrogels

Abstract

For alleviating both of the environmental and resource-depletion problems related to heavy metals, the authors examined the heavy-metal adsorption and desorption functionalities of some hydrogels. It was found that the functional hydrogels can capture the heavy metals more efficiently than other adsorbents, and besides, some of them can desorb the adsorbed heavy metal with the efficiency of ～100%. From these experimental results, the authors have proposed a new heavy-metal recycling system in which the hydrogel adsorbent is also recycled repeatedly.