Removing Organic Dyes by Using a Small Peptide Hydrogel

Using a photocrosslinked peptide hydrogel as a model system, we studied the adsorption and desorption kinetics and thermodynamics of six industrially widely used dyes. We revealed that weak interactions between dye molecules and the peptide hydrogelator determine the dye adsorption ability of the hydrogel and that slight structural differences between dye molecules could influence the adsorption dramatically.