Removal of bisphenol A from water solution using molecularly imprinted nanopolymers: isotherm and kinetic studies

In the present study, the adsorption behavior of mesoporous molecularly imprinted polymers for bisphenol A was investigated. Molecularly imprinted nanopolymers were synthesized by precipitation polymerization using bisphenol A as a template molecule. Two molecular ratios of template: functional monomer: cross-linker (1:6:30 (MIP-6) and 1:4:20 (MIP-4)) was considered for experiments. Ethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a Crosslinker, methacrylic acid (MAA) as a functional monomer and 2, 2´-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator were used for the synthesis of polymers. Moreover, Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms, and pseudo-firstorder and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were studied for the adsorption mechanism. Results showed that porous polymers with an average pore diameter of 13 to 17 nm and a specific surface area of 326 to 439 (cm^3/g) were obtained. The maximum adsorption capacity was 400.1 μmol/g for MIP-6. SEM analysis showed that the synthesized polymer particles were spherical. The highest adsorption efficiency of bisphenol A achieved by MIP-6 was 71%.