Thermally Sensitive Molecularly Imprinted Polymers on Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres: Preparation, Characterization, and Properties as Novel Adsorbents for Dichlorophen

Abstract

Novel thermally responsive mesoporous silica nanosphere molecularly imprinted polymers (T-MMIPs) were prepared via a two-step precipitation polymerization process for selective adsorption and removal of dichlorophen (DCP) in aquatic environments. The innovative part was that T-MMIPs were first used for the identification and separation of DCP. The obtained materials were characterized by SEM, TEM, FT-IR, and XRD. Static adsorption, kinetic, temperature sensitivity, and selective recognition experiments were implemented to test adsorption performance of T-MMIPs and T-MNIPs (thermally responsive mesoporous silica nanosphere molecularly nonimprinted polymers). Langmuir and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were found more consistent with experimental data, and T-MMIPs had a higher selective adsorption capacity and better temperature response. T-MMIPs have the best adsorption performance, and their adsorption equilibrium capacity can reach 108.35 mg/g at 298 K. In addition, regeneration and real-sample experiments demonstrated that T-MMIPs have good repeatability and practicality. Therefore, this study provides a potential application for the adsorption of dichlorophen in wastewater environments.