Construction of hyperbranched carbene-type toughened hydrogel and mechanism of adsorption-thermal activation degradation for synergistic levofloxacin removal

Hydrogel as a new state-of-the-art functional material has excellent controllable stretch properties, making it widely used in various fields around the world. However, the simplicity of the existing hydrogel structure makes it prone to collapse and results in poor toughness. The development of a new “tough and strong structure” functional hydrogel has therefore been a hot topic of discussion. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) containing carbene functional groups was used as the reinforcing unit and hyperbranched polyamide (HBP) as the toughening matrix. Hyperbranched toughened functional carbene-based hydrogels (GO/HBP@SA) were synthesized by molecular modification of GO@SA backbone functional groups via Michael reaction. To investigate the adsorption properties of GO/HBP@SA on Levofloxacin (LEV) contaminants and the degradation effect of LEV as a “molecular reactor” in the thermally activated LEV degradation system of K 2 S 2 O 8 . The results show that the compressive stress reaches 1.543 MPa at 70 % compressive deformation. It also displayed a tensile strength and modulus of 209.56 and 19.9 MPa, respectively. After degradation, 92.51 % of LEV was removed with a maximum adsorption capacity of 205.8 mg·g −1 . Three hydrogel isothermal adsorption models were developed to elucidate the adsorption mechanism. Furthermore, GO/HBP@SA showed excellent reusability, maintaining an adsorption capacity of over 80 % for LEV after 20 consecutive cycles of adsorption.