Chemically stable microporous hyper-cross-linked polymer (HCP): an efficient selective cationic dye scavenger from an aqueous medium

A cost-effective and robust microporous hyper-cross-linked organic material (HCP-91) has been post-synthetically modified for the rational incorporation of sodium cations via alkali treatment (HCP-91@Na). The presence of free cations has been tapped for the selective capture of cationic dyes via rapid ionexchange. For this study we have used three cationic dye molecules [ namely, methylene blue (MB), crystal violet (CV) and rhodamine B (RB)] and one anionic dye (methyl orange). The performance of HCP-91@Na in an aqueous medium for size and charge-selective dye entrapment has been comprehensively investigated with monocomponent dye solution studies, as well as binary mixtures of cationic and anionic dye molecules.