SYNTHESIS & CHARACTERIZATION OF STYRENE-DIVINYL BASED MOLECULARLY IMPRINTED POLYMER FOR THE REMEDIATION OF PHTHALATE CONTAMINATED WASTEWATER

Abstract

Here, a series of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized using dibutyl & diphenyl phthalates as templates with bulk polymerization method. The MIPs were employed for phthalates removal from wastewaters of environmental importance & characterized by XRD, SEM & FTIR. The designed experiments were carried out to explore the adsorption thermodynamics, kinetics & isotherms. The adsorbents were featured with excellent  adsorption efficiencies that exceeded  The pseudo-second order kinetic model is more consistent with the experimental data, whilst the adsorption data was well explained by Langmuir isotherm model, suggesting homogeneous surface of the adsorbent. In addition, the calculated thermodynamic parameters revealed that the adsorption process was mainly spontaneous & endothermic in nature, with favourable adsorption efficiencies at elevated temperatures. The sorbent also showed no adsorption efficiency loss even after seven (7) runs of regeneration cycle, indicating that it is of great stability & could be considered as a candidate with excellent potential for complex wastewater treatment. Finally, this study demonstrated that phthalates in wastewaters could be effectively adsorbed by imprinted material.