Sorption of Phthalates on Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

Porous beads of styrene divinylbenzene copolymer, S-co-DVB, imprinted with dimethyl phthalate, DMP, were obtained. Two solvents were applied for the formation of pores: n-hexane and n-octane. The sorbents were prepared by membrane emulsification of monomer mixtures containing DMP followed by suspension polymerization. The average diameters of the synthesized beads were 40 mu m for beads obtained from mixtures with n-octane, and 30 mu m for preparations with n-hexane as solvent. It was shown that almost all monodispersive sorbents were obtained; their SPAN parameter was as small as 0.7-0.9. Sorption properties of evaluated samples varied in relation to the kind of applied reaction mixture. Generally, imprinted materials showed higher sorption capacity towards DMP than their off-template analogues. For the sorbent obtained in the presence of n-octane and with 3 wt.% of DMP, sorption of dimethyl phthalate took the highest value - 89 mg/g. The sorbents imprinted with DMP were checked for sorption of diethyl phthalate, DEP, and dibuthyl phthalate, DBP also. It was shown that sorbability of synthesized materials towards other phthalates was much smaller than for DMP and was not related to the presence of dimethyl phthalate foot prints.