Extraction of Pyrocatechol from pharmaceutical wastewater through Adsorption Using Molecularly Imprinted Polymer prepared from Methacrylic Acid Monomer

Abstract

Development of inexpensive adsorbents from polymer materials for the extraction of pyrocatechol (PC) from wastewaters is an important area in environmental sciences. The study involves the development of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) as sorbent material for the extraction of PC from wastewater. To realize this objective, the non-covalent approach has been applied for the preparation of MIP using methacrylic acid (MAA) as a functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as crosslinker. Furthermore, the synthesized polymers were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis techniques. Adsorption equilibrium data were determined for the uptake of PC from synthetically prepared aqueous PC solution. The designed MIP demonstrated outstanding affinity towards PC. The adsorption capacity of the MIP increases from 1.91 to 27.60 mg/g by increasing the initial concentration of PC from 10 to 500 mg/L, yielding a hyperbolic curve. The equilibrium data were evaluated using two isotherm models namely, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The MIP material was used for extraction of PC from real sample of pharmaceutical effluent and its efficiency was studied.Keywords: Molecular imprinting, adsorption, pyrocatechol, wastewater, characterization