Potential evaluation and perspectives on using sponge-like superabsorbent cryogels for onsite water treatment in emergencies

This paper reports and discusses the prospects of a novel approach for emergency water treatment using antibacterial PSA/Ag cryogels. The approach involves allowing the cryogel to swell in contaminated water after which the disinfected water can be recovered by a simple squeezing step. Employing this process allowed the cryogels to achieve enhanced disinfection compared to other Ag-modified materials. The cryogels could achieve more than two logs (99%) bacterial inactivation in natural water samples. The cryogels were robust and showed stable disinfection performance over 10 cycles indicating that they were highly reusable. These results indicate that the PSA/Ag cryogels offer excellent potential for applications requiring potable water production in response to emergencies or disasters.