Mechanically robust, high water-content hydrogels with microphase separated membrane for wastewater regeneration

Release time:2026-06-22  Hits:

• Journal:Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
• Key Words:Organogel，Hydrogel，Solvent exchange，Wastewater regeneration
• Abstract:Conventional hydrogels face a fundamental trade-off between high water content and mechanical robustness, limiting their practical application in pressure-driven filtration. In this work, a series of organogels were made of vinyl acetate (VAc) and methyl acrylate (MA) via UV initiated copolymerization. When the organogels transformed into hydrogels, the products changed from transparent to white, and a microphase separation membrane formed on the network surface. This membrane played an essential role in the hydrogel’s performance: it brough about asymmetric diffusion based on a size exclusion mechanism. At 3 wt% of VAc/MA, the water content of hydrogel reached 250 times its own weight while the hydrogel showed robust mechanical stability such as a toughness of 125.34 KJ/m3 and a compressive stress of 76.71 KPa, with remarkable recovery and fatigue resistance over 100 rounds of cyclic compression. The hydrogel achieved exceptional desalination performance across multiple saline systems with salt rejection rates consistently exceeding 99 %, along with effective removal of dyes from simulated wastewater. This strategy effectively alleviates the inverse relation between high water content and mechanical robustness and offers versatile flexible hydrogel material for convenient wastewater regeneration.
• Co-author:王锋
• First Author:宋晓峰（教师）
• Indexed by:Journal paper
• Volume:730
• Page Number:138953
• Translation or Not:no
• Date of Publication:2026-01-01
• Included Journals:SCI

• 1.2026-CSA.pdf