In the current study, hard water softening for the removal of Ca2þ and Mg2þ ions was performed using hydrogel beads based on Gum Tragacance (GT) modified by using 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) and poly(vinyl alcohol). The antibacterial spherical hydrogel beads were fabricated by instantaneous gelation of well dispersed mixture of poly(AMPS)-g-GT (1 g), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA, 1 g) flocculent, green-synthesized silver metal nanoparticles (AgNPs, 10 mg), and graphene oxide (GO, 10 mg) in the acetone solution of boric acid and then transferring into the different amounts (0.5e2.5 mL) of acidic solution of glutaraldehyde (GA) as cross-linker. The beads were fully characterized and their adsorption behavior matched well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Langmuir isotherm models with the maximum adsorption of Ca2þ(114.18mg g1) and Mg2þ(162.46 mg g1). The removal ability of the beads decreased by 6% after four adsorption/desorption cycles. The antibacterial performance of the hydrogel beads was also investigated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.
