A biomass-based hydrogel prepared from polymerization of Enteromorpha with acrylic acid (p(EP-g-AA)), was tested for application as a green and effective soft reactor for three purposes. First, swelling property of the p(EP-g-AA) hydrogel was tested and its use as an adsorbent for Cu(II) removal was studied. Then, these hydrogel networks were used as a template for in-situ copper nanoparticle synthesis. Both TEM and SEM images confirmed the formation of Cu particles sizing smaller than 100 nm. EDS mapping showed a homogeneous dispersion of the nanoparticles within the hydrogel structure. XRD patterns of the nanoparticles correspond to metallic Cu establishing a hexagonal crystallinity. Finally, the hydrogel-metal nanoparticle (p(EP-g-AA)-Cu) were employed as a catalyst for reduction of two organic contaminants, p-nitrophenol (4-NP) and methylene blue (MB). Reusability and stability studies demonstrated that the p(EP-g-AA)-Cu catalyst still maintained 80–90% of catalytic activity after 5 times use and 30 days storage.

测试了由Enteromorpha与丙烯酸（p（EP-g-AA）聚合而成的基于生物质的水凝胶，可用于三个目的的绿色高效软反应器。首先，测试了p（EP-g-AA）水凝胶的溶胀性能，并研究了其作为去除Cu（II）的吸附剂的用途。然后，将这些水凝胶网络用作原位模板铜纳米粒子的合成。TEM和SEM图像均证实形成了尺寸小于100 nm的Cu颗粒。EDS作图显示了水凝胶结构内纳米颗粒的均匀分散。纳米颗粒的XRD图谱对应于建立六边形结晶度的金属Cu。最后，将水凝胶金属纳米粒子（p（EP-g-AA）-Cu）用作还原两种有机污染物对硝基苯酚（4-NP）和亚甲基蓝（MB）的催化剂。可重复使用性和稳定性研究表明，使用5次使用和储存30天后，p（EP-g-AA）-Cu催化剂仍保持80-90％的催化活性。