Self-sustaining ionic liquid gels able to remove cationic dyes from wastewater

What is it about?

We used supramolecular ionogels made from imidazolium polycarboxycarboxylate in ionic liquids, as nanostructured sorbents for the removal of cationic dyes from water.

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Why is it important?

In this work we found one of the rare examples of self-strengthening supramolecular gels, meaning that when the gel is detroyed by a sufficient mechanical strain, not only it reforms spontaneously, but when it reforms it is mechanically stringer than the initial state. The best performing gel enabled fast and thorough removal of Rhodamine B from aqueos solutions and was recyclable for 20 times without loss in efficiency. Notably we could partially regenerate the dye-laden gel, which could be used further 15 times with no loss in efficiency.