Synthesis of a Novel Raw Wool and Polyacrylamide-BasedHydrogel as a Colorimetric Sensor

Abstract

We have developed a robust method for the detection of heavy metal ions zinc, cadmium, and mercury in water. In this study we have synthesized a hydrogel based on biopolymer that is raw wool obtained from eszvMarino sheep and used this hydrogel as heavy metal ion sensor in the water. We have incorporated meta- benziporphodimethene ligand in-situ in the hydrogel synthesis, which shows selectively color-changing characteristics when immersed in Zn2+, Cd2+ and Hg2+ metal ions aqueous solution. This hydrogel shows selective response towards Zn2+, Cd2+ and Hg2+ metal ions in a competitive environment. Meta-BPDM was responsible for the selectivity of hydrogel towards Zn2+, Cd2+ and Hg2+ metal ions in water. This selective sensing behavior of raw wool based hydrogel has given a novel existence to our study. The synthesized hydrogel was studied for sensing applications and characterized by using FTIR, TGA, and SEM techniques.