Selective removal of congo red from wastewater using molecularly imprinted polymer

ABSTRACT

Molecular imprinted polymer microspheres (MIP) were prepared by a one-step swelling polymerization method using polystyrene microspheres as seeds, congo red (CR) as template molecules, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, methyl acrylic acid ethylene glycol ester as cross-linker, acetonitrile as the solvent and azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. The morphology and structure of MIP were characterized by SEM and FT-IR. The selective recognition ability of MIP was investigated using the equilibrium binding experiments. Results showed that the adsorption process could be depicted by the pseudo-second-order model. Relative to competitive analogs of direct yellow GR and methyl orange, the selectivity coefficients of CR-MIP for congo red are 2.163 and 4.908, respectively. CR-MIP could be employed as an effective material for removing congo red from wastewater.

KEYWORDS:

• Molecularly imprinted polymer
• seed swelling method
• congo red
• selectivity adsorption

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Green Catalysis of Sichuan Institutes Higher Education (LYJ1405). The authors thank Analysis and Testing Center, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering for kindly carrying out the morphology and structure of polymer characterization.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Green Catalysis of Sichuan Institutes Higher Education [LYJ1405].