Water pollution is one of the major problems that need
to be solved
in modern society, and there is a need to develop an effective adsorbent
to purify the polluted water. In this article, three supramolecular
metallohydrogels containing a three-dimensional network structure
have been prepared from rosin derivatives. The supramolecular metallohydrogels
have good thermal stability and maintain mechanical strength at high
temperatures. Interestingly, the sodium N-(dehydroabiety1)maleamate/Ca2+ supramolecular metallohydrogels exhibit rare multi-stimulus
responsiveness (mechanical vibration, temperature, pH, EDTA, etc.),
especially to mechanical vibration with over 10 cycles, indicating
ultra-mechanical response properties. More importantly, the unique
three-dimensional network structure of the metallohydrogels can effectively
adsorb cationic dyes in the wastewater. The adsorption amount and
adsorption rate of this supramolecular metallohydrogels for rhodamine
6G after 48 h were at least 160.6 mg/g and 97%, respectively. The
adsorption kinetic process of this metallohydrogel follows a quasi-secondary
kinetic model, where the adsorption process is mainly electrostatic
and weak π–π interactions. And the metallohydrogels
can also be recovered by 0.5 mol/L hydrochloric acid solution desorption
after adsorption of the dye. This is the first supramolecular metallohydrogel
system prepared from the natural product rosin and applied to dye
adsorption. This broadens the application of rosin in the field of
supramolecular gel and dye adsorption and recycling.