fairfolio
Saved Projects

A Novel Method for Pollutant Removal Using Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels in Dynamic Water Systems

ISEF · 2026 Earth and Environmental Sciences

Lakshmanan, Aadarsh · Harper Middle College High School

Overview

Thermo-responsive hydrogels represent a promising advancement in sustainable water purification, as this research investigates PNIPAM-based hydrogels enhanced with silica, cellulose, and activated carbon to selectively capture and release contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and synthetic dyes by adsorbing them at lower temperatures and releasing them upon heating above 32°C for regeneration and reuse, with laboratory testing showing activated carbon composites achieving removal efficiencies up to 73.5% for methylene blue, 66% for acetaminophen, and 50% for microplastics across at least three heating–cooling cycles, demonstrating advantages over traditional methods like activated carbon filtration and reverse osmosis due to reusability, lower resource demands, and effectiveness against emerging pollutants, while still requiring further optimization for broader applicability and long-term durability, ultimately highlighting their potential as a cost-effective and sustainable solution for dynamic water treatment and global water quality challenges.

Competition history

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google