Dual-functional calcium alginate hydrogel beads for disinfection control and removal of dyes in water

For the decontamination of both pathogenic microorganism and toxic dye from wastewater, new type of materials should be exploited to fabricate more cost-effective, eco-friendly biosorbent. Herein, a promising hydrogel beads based on the incorporation of nano‑silver/diatomite into calcium alginate (named as Ag-DE@CAH) was designed to disinfect water and remove methylene blue (MB). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), etc. were utilized for characterization analysis. Compared with nano‑silver/diatomite (Ag-DE), the novel Ag-DE@CAH beads displayed a better sustained release profile for Ag⁺, and it noteworthy that the concentration of Ag⁺ in aqueous media is below the limit of the World Health Organization (WHO) standard (100 ppb) for a 30-days release experiment. It was found that Ag-DE@CAH beads exhibited better disinfection ability towards Escherichia coli (E. coli) than Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and the maximum adsorption capacities of Ag-DE@CAH for MB was 128.21 mg/g. In addition, the as-prepared Ag-DE@CAH beads showed superior and reusable performance in the process of adsorption experiments for MB. Overall, the study indicates that the materials with both excellent disinfection and adsorption properties have potential application prospects for water purification.