Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous polymeric microspheres of methacrylic derivatives of aromatic thiols

Abstract

The paper presents the synthesis and characterization of mesoporous microspheres of derivatives of three aromatic thiols: S-phenyl 2-methylprop-2-enethioate (PSM), S,S′-thiodi-4,1-phenylenebis(thiomethacrylate) (DMSPS), and bis[4(2-hydroxy-3-methacryloyloxypropoxy)phenyl]sulfide (BES.DM) with divinylbenzene (DVB). The microspheres were obtained by the emulsion-suspension polymerization procedure. The chemical and porous structure, morphology, and properties of the microspheres were analyzed by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR/FT-IR) spectroscopy, low-temperature nitrogen adsorption data, optical microscope MORPHOLOGI G3, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF). Moreover, studies on the Pb(II) ions sorption process were carried out on the above mentioned compounds. The sorption kinetics and mechanism were described by the pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intraparticle diffusion models. The sorption equilibria were described by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The PSM-DVB, DMSPS-DVB, and BES.DM-DVB microspheres exhibit high thermal resistance and good adsorption properties of Pb(II) ions. The best adsorption properties for the examined microspheres were obtained at pH 5. The highest monolayer adsorption capacity determined by Langmuir isotherm was obtained for the DMSPS-DVB microspheres and was equal to 22.54 mg/g. The preliminary studies show that the synthesized microspheres can be used as heavy metal ion sorbents from aqueous solutions.