Synthesis, adsorption and selectivity studies of a polymer imprinted with naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac

In this study, selective removal of acidic pharmaceutical from aqueous media was investigated. The purpose of this work was to use the multi template molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for the selective extraction of naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac from aqueous samples. A multi template MIP was synthesized using a bulk polymerization method. The performance of the MIP in aqueous solutions was evaluated by optimizing several adsorption parameters. The optimized adsorption conditions were 50 mg of MIP, extraction time of 10 min and a sample pH of 4.6. The imprinting factors obtained for naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac were 1.25, 1.42, and 2.01, respectively, which corresponded to the selectivity order of diclofenac > ibuprofen > naproxen. Furthermore, the synthesized MIP showed great selectivity to the target compounds in the presence of gemfibrozil and fenoprofen. The data was modelled best by pseudo 2nd order which implied a chemisorption of pharmaceuticals onto MIP particles. Based on R-2 values, it was determined that the adsorption data fitted Langmuir isotherm which meant that the binding occurred on the homogeneous sites. The recovery in wastewater influent for naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac was 38%, 69% and 87%, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.