Water Remediation from Pollutant Agents by the Use of an Environmentally Friendly Supramolecular Hydrogel

The removal of Diclofenac sodium from waste waters has a high relevance since it belongs to the therapeutic group most commonly found in wastes. An aromatic-free and low-impact technology that efficiently entraps aqueous pollutants is highly desirable. We synthesised two Boc-protected and aromatic-free tripeptides (Boc-L-Ala-Aib-L-Val-OH and Boc-L-Val-Aib-L-Val-OH) and studied their ability to form gels with mixtures of water and alcohols, such as methanol, ethanol and 2-propanol. Boc-L-Ala-Aib-L-Val-OH forms a strong hydrogel in 2-propanol/water mixtures able to trap up to 97.8% of Eosin Y model molecule and up to 92.0% of Diclofenac sodium from aqueous solutions. The hydrogel is also thixotropic, thermoreversible and biocompatible. This outcome is very encouraging and paves the way to a new approach for developing new materials using aromatic-free hydrogels, useful for water remediation.