such as carboxy groups that can be coupled to the amines of the polymer through amide bonds other crosslinking or coupling reagents can be included in the polymer and chelator system in order to prepare a polymeric chelator having the ability to chelate iron examples of iron chelating small molecules are referenced in u s pat no 3 758 540 examples of chelator schemes may be found in u s pat nos 7 342 083 5 702 696 and 5 487 888 in some embodiments the present disclosure provides a polymeric chelator polymer or hydrogel made by reacting 2 3 dihydroxybenzoic acid dhba a known iron chelator to a polyamine polymer fig1 b depicts a structural diagram of such a polymeric chelator formed by reacting a chelator with a polyamine polymer in some embodiments the polymeric chelators in polymer or hydrogel form can be fabricated as solids or equilibrated in aqueous solution as a solution or suspension the polyamine conjugates have exceptional binding affinity and selectivity for iron in some examples the polyamine polymer may comprise pvam and paam pvam and paam are polycation hydrogels consisting of reactive primary amine side groups for the conjugation of 2 3 dhba 2 3 dhba acid is a fraction of the well known natural iron chelator enterobactin log k 52 which is a high affinity siderophore that acquires iron for microbial systems cross linked pvam hydrogel may be synthesized by hydrolyzing a precursor polymer pnvf in a basic medium cross linked paam hydrogel mat be synthesized by cross linking the precursor paam chains both types of polymeric chelator hydrogels may demonstrate a high affinity and selectivity for iron at phs similar to the gi tract in.