Hydrogel Applications to Microbiological Water Treatment

One of the requirements for the treatment of drinking water is the removal of pathogenic microorganisms. Typically, the most used techniques apply inorganic nanoparticles or chlorine release precursors to inactivate bacteria. While these treatments are very effective, they tend to show a decrease in antimicrobial activity over time, releasing potentially toxic ions and contributing to bacterial resistance. In this sense, the development of hydrogel-based materials has become a potential alternative for water disinfection. The synthesis and functionalization of hydrogels have been proven to improve the global performance of microorganism retention. Our work provides an overview of the synthesis and functionalization of hydrogel-based materials, their advantages and limitations, and the latest research on the use of hydrogels for water disinfection. The future panorama of hydrogel-based materials applicability for water treatment is also provided. The main challenge to expand the use of hydrogels in water treatment is the lack of research assessing the feasibility of large-scale applicability of these materials, considering real systems. Most of the studies carried out experiments at laboratory scale with controlled situations, in which interactions between microorganisms and real world contaminants were not considered.