Hospital-based waste treatment for high-value drugs recovery

一种新的去除造影剂的新方法包括使用电化学技术和低分子质量凝胶剂的组合。低分子量凝胶(LMWGs)是一种很有前途的新型废水处理材料。它们与聚合物水凝胶体系明显不同，因为它们不包含结构之间的物理化学键。在文献中，有报道称聚合物水凝胶具有良好的去除多种污染物的能力。然而，有关LMWG的报告较少。拟议的任务分为三个部分。第一项研究是操纵造影剂，以评估其电化学形成凝胶的潜力。第二是将污染物纳入现有的LMWG。这两种方法都会导致污染物形成水凝胶。凝胶/污染物的形成可以很容易地从水中去除，并且由于这些LMWG的性质，很容易破坏凝胶/污染物的形成，然后重复使用这两种成分。电化学研究的第三部分将产生一种逆转污染物/凝胶混合物的方法(通常使用简单的pH开关)。这将导致从水中去除污染物，从而能够回收高价值的药物。由于大量的参数可以通过电化学来控制，因此也有可能探索从含有多种污染物的废水中选择性地去除不同的污染物。这一创新项目将提供一种新的污染药物提取方法，用于适当处理或回收。

A new novel approach for the removal of contrast agents involves utilising a combination of electrochemical techniques and low molecular weight gelators. Low molecular weight gels (LMWGs) are a promising new class of materials for treatment of wastewater. These differ distinctly from polymer hydrogel systems as they do not contain physical chemical bonds between the structures. Within the literature there are reports in the excellent ability of polymer hydrogels to remove a wide and diverse range of pollutants. However, there are fewer reports into LMWGs. The proposed tasks are broken into three sections. The first investigation is to manipulate contrast media to assess their potential to form gels electrochemically. The second is to incorporate pollutants into existing LMWGs. Both approaches will result in the pollutants forming a hydrogel. The formations of the gel/pollutant can easily be removed from the water and due to the nature of these LMWG, it is easily possible to destroy the gel/pollutant formation and then reuse both components. The third section of the electrochemical investigation will be producing a method to reverse the pollutant/gel mixtures (normally by using a simple pH switch). This will result in the removal of pollutants from water and consequently the ability to recover the high value pharmaceutical. Due to the vast number of parameters that can be controlled electrochemically it is also possible to explore the selective removal of different pollutants from wastewaters containing multiple contaminants. This innovative project would provide a novel method of contaminant drug extraction for either proper disposal or recycling.