Scientists have been encouraged to find different methods for removing harmful heavy metal ions and dyes from bodies of water. The adsorption technique offers promising outcomes for heavy metal ion removal and is simple to run on a large scale, making it appropriate for practical applications. Many adsorbent hydrogels have been developed and reported, comprising N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAA)-based hydrogels, which have attracted a lot of interest due to their reusability, simplicity of synthesis, and processing. DMAA hydrogels are also a suitable choice for self-healing materials and materials with good mechanical properties. This review work discusses the recent studies of DMAA-based hydrogels such as hydrogels for dye removal and the removal of hazardous heavy metal ions from water. Furthermore, there are also references about their conduct for self-healing materials and for enhancing mechanical properties.

In this work, a hydrogel system was produced via radical polymerization of N,N-dimethylacrylamide and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid in the presence of N,N-methylene-bis-acrylamide as a crosslinker and ammonium persulfate as an initiator. Parameters that impact the conversion of copolymerization (such as initial concentration of monomers, temperature, initiator dose, and time) were studied. The swelling degree of the hydrogel was investigated with the addition of a crosslinker and initiator at different pH levels. A hydrogel with high conversion and high swelling degree was selected to investigate their ability for adsorption of Pb(II) ions from solutions. Adsorption behavior of Pb(II) ions in a hydrogel was examined as a function of reaction time and concentration of lead ions from a solution of Pb(II) ions.