Installation of synergistic binding sites onto porous organic polymers for efficient removal of perfluorooctanoic acid

The performance of adsorbents for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) removal often suffers from long equilibrium times, weak binding affinities and poor stability. Here the authors report a highly efficient PFOA adsorbents by functionalizing porous organic polymers with electrostatic and hydrophobic binding sites. Herein, we report a strategy to construct highly efficient perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) adsorbents by installing synergistic electrostatic/hydrophobic sites onto porous organic polymers (POPs). The constructed model material of PAF-1-NDMB (NDMB = N,N-dimethyl-butylamine) demonstrates an exceptionally high PFOA uptake capacity over 2000 mg g(-1), which is 14.8 times enhancement compared with its parent material of PAF-1. And it is 32.0 and 24.1 times higher than benchmark materials of DFB-CDP (beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD)-based polymer network) and activated carbon under the same conditions. Furthermore, PAF-1-NDMB exhibits the highest k(2) value of 24,000 g mg(-1) h(-1) among all reported PFOA sorbents. And it can remove 99.99% PFOA from 1000 ppb to <70 ppt within 2 min, which is lower than the advisory level of Environmental Protection Agency of United States. This work thus not only provides a generic approach for constructing PFOA adsorbents, but also develops POPs as a platform for PFOA capture.

Automated summary

This study reports a strategy to construct highly efficient PFOA adsorbents by functionalizing porous organic polymers with electrostatic and hydrophobic binding sites, demonstrating exceptional PFOA uptake capacity and rapid removal rates.