Synthesis of surface ion-imprinted magnetic microsphere for efficient sorption of perrhenate: A structural surrogate for pertechnetate

It is significant for environment and human health to develop new materials for the sorption of radioactive technetium. We report herein a novel method to synthesize surface ion-imprinted magnetic microspheres for efficient capture of technetium ions. Specifically, perrhenate anion as the structural surrogate for pertechnetate anion, was employed as template to prepare ion-imprinted magnetic microsphere by one-pot radical polymerization and quaternization. The sorption behavior is closely related with the surface chemical composition: the more nitrogen content, the higher sorption efficiency. The sorption is an exothermic spontaneous sorption process and kinetically followed pseudo-second-order model. A sorption capacity of 62.8 mg of Re/g could be achieved at 298.15 K and pH = 6. Compared with non-imprinted composites, imprinted microspheres showed higher selectivity; faster kinetics, and larger sorption capacity of perrhenate ions. This work may provide a promising approach for the efficient sorption of pertechnetate. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.