Rapid Gelling of Guar Gum Hydrogel Stabilized by Copper Hydroxide Nanoclusters for Efficient Removal of Heavy Metal and Supercapacitors

Xinwei Zhu; Yingxi Chen; Renjian Xie; Haijian Zhong; Weidong Zhao; Yang Liu; Hui Yang

doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.794755

Rapid Gelling of Guar Gum Hydrogel Stabilized by Copper Hydroxide Nanoclusters for Efficient Removal of Heavy Metal and Supercapacitors

Front Chem. 2021 Nov 16:9:794755. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.794755. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xinwei Zhu^{1

2

3}, Yingxi Chen⁴, Renjian Xie^{1

2

5}, Haijian Zhong^{1

2

5}, Weidong Zhao^{1

2

5}, Yang Liu⁶, Hui Yang^{1

2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases, Ministry of Education, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, China.
² Key Laboratory of Biomaterials and Bio-fabrication in Tissue Engineering of Jiangxi Province, Ganzhou, China.
³ School of Rehabilitation Medicine, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, China.
⁴ First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, China.
⁵ School of Medical Information Engineering, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, China.
⁶ Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences, Changzhou University, Changzhou, China.

Abstract

In this paper, guar gum (GG) hydrogel has been successfully prepared by adding GG and Cu²⁺ mixture into an alkaline medium. The formation mechanism of the hydrogel has been investigated through various techniques. Results reveal GG facilitates the formation of ultrafine copper hydroxide clusters with a diameter of ∼3 nm. Moreover, these nanoclusters bring about a rapid gelling of GG within 10 ms. The synthesized hydrogel is applied to the adsorption of heavy metal ions from wastewater. The hydrogel shows excellent removal efficiency in removing various heavy metal ions. Besides, the hydrogel derived porous carbon exhibits high specific capacitance (281 F/g at 1 A/g) and excellent rate capacity. The high contaminant removal efficiency character and excellent electrochemical performance endow GG hydrogel with potential applications in the environmental and energy storage field.

Keywords: copper hydroxide; crosslinking; guar gum; hydrogel; polysaccharides.