Preparation of molecularly imprinted polymer by surface imprinting technique and its performance for adsorption of dibenzothiophene

The novel surface imprinted polymer composites (MIP/K(2)Ti(4)O(9)) were prepared using dibenzothiophene (DBT) as the template, 4-vinylpyridine as the functional monomer and potassium tetratitanate whisker (K(2)Ti(4)O(9)) as the carrier. The synthetic product was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Parameters influencing DBT adsorption such as contact time, temperature and DBT initial concentration were investigated. The adsorption kinetics were evaluated with the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models, and the adsorption isotherms were fitted by Langmuir and Freundlich models. Selectivity experiments showed that MIP/K(2)Ti(4)O(9) exhibited excellent recognition capacity and binding affinity to DBT compared with the comparative substrates. MIP/K(2)Ti(4)O(9) could also be easily regenerated and reused ten times with only about 20% loss of adsorption capacity.