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Development and characterization of biocompatible fish scale hydrogel for microplastic capture from wastewater
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Researchers made gel-like materials from fish scales and tested them on water samples from waste dumping sites in Khulna City. A version made from ctenoid fish scales removed more microplastic particles (up to 91.21%) within two hours than a version made from cycloid fish scales, including particles smaller than 5 micrometers.
Hydrogels are a type of polymeric material that contains a hydrophilic structure, which allows them to hold large amounts of water in their three-dimensional networks. Over the past few decades, these hydrogels have been employed to capture significant amounts of contaminants. The aim of this study was to develop biocompatible fish scale hydrogel (FSH) and describe its physicochemical characteristics, specifically for cycloid and ctenoid forms, as well as their applications in the removal of microplastic (MP) from drinking water. Furthermore, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for mechanical testing and characterization of hydrogel and MP particles. FSH surfaces contain amide (-NH₂), carbonyl (-CO), hydroxyl (-OH), and carboxyl (-COOH) functional groups. Ctenoid fish scale hydrogel (T-FSH) removed higher MP particles (90.8% and 91.21%) than cycloid fish scale hydrogel (C-FSH) (86.57% and 88.73%) at 2 h from the Gollamari and Nirala solid waste dumping sites in Khulna City. As swelling is controlled by ionization of the hydrogel’s functional groups, the long-term MP adsorption efficiency of the hydrogel may reduce structural integrity. Additionally, the evidence indicated that T-FSH had comparatively favorable structural integrity, swelling behavior, and stability, which supports its applicability for MP removal applications for a limited time. In this study, T-FSH encourages waste valorization while offering a more sustainable and efficient alternative to MP removal methods than C-FSH. Even though the hydrogels eliminated MPs of less than 5 μm, these results can help future analyses to better comprehend the possible adsorption process of FSHs.
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