ABSTRACT
In the current study, hard water softening for the removal of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions was performed using hydrogel beads based on Gum Tragacance (GT) modified by using 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) and poly(vinyl alcohol). The antibacterial spherical hydrogel beads were fabricated by instantaneous gelation of well dispersed mixture of poly(AMPS)-g-GT (1â¯g), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA, 1â¯g) flocculent, green-synthesized silver metal nanoparticles (AgNPs, 10â¯mg), and graphene oxide (GO, 10â¯mg) in the acetone solution of boric acid and then transferring into the different amounts (0.5-2.5â¯mL) of acidic solution of glutaraldehyde (GA) as cross-linker. The beads were fully characterized and their adsorption behavior matched well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Langmuir isotherm models with the maximum adsorption of Ca2+(114.18â¯mgâ¯g-1) and Mg2+(162.46â¯mgâ¯g-1). The removal ability of the beads decreased by 6% after four adsorption/desorption cycles. The antibacterial performance of the hydrogel beads was also investigated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.