Synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymer by precipitation polymerization for the removal of ametryn.

Ametryn (AME) is a triazine herbicide which is mainly used to kill unwanted herbs in crops. Despite its importance in agriculture, the usage of AME also poses a risk to humans and the ecosystem due to its toxicity. Hence, it is important to develop a method for the effective removal of AME from various water sources which is in the form of molecular imprinting polymer (MIP). In this study, MIP of AME was synthesized via precipitation polymerization using AME as the template molecule with three different functional monomers including methacrylic acid (MAA), acrylamide (AAm) and 2-vinylpyridine (2VP). The three different synthesized polymers namely MIP (MAA), MIP (AAm) and MIP (2VP) were characterized using Fourier Infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and Field Emission Electron Microscopy (FESEM). Then, the batch binding study was carried out using all three MIPs in which MIP (MAA) attained the highest rebinding efficiency (93.73%) among the synthesized polymers. The Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were also conducted on the selected MIP (MAA). Adsorption studies including initial concentration, pH and polymer dosage were also conducted on MIP (MAA). In this study, the highest adsorption efficiency was attained at the optimum condition of 6 ppm of AME solution at pH 7 with 0.1 g of MIP (MAA). MIP (MAA) was successfully applied to remove AME from spiked distilled water, tap water and river water samples with removal efficiencies of 95.01%, 90.24% and 88.37%, respectively.

Synthesis and Characterization of Molecular Imprinting Polymer Microspheres of Piperine: Extraction of Piperine from Spiked Urine.

Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) microspheres for Piperine were synthesized by precipitation polymerization with a noncovalent approach. In this research Piperine was used as a template, acrylic acid as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linker, and 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator and acetonitrile as a solvent. The imprinted and nonimprinted polymer particles were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The synthesized polymer particles were further evaluated for their rebinding efficiency by batch binding assay. The highly selected imprinted polymer for Piperine was MIP 3 with a composition (molar ratio) of 0.5 : 3 : 8, template : monomer : cross-linker, respectively. The MIP 3 exhibits highest binding capacity (84.94%) as compared to other imprinted and nonimprinted polymers. The extraction efficiency of highly selected imprinted polymer of Piperine from spiked urine was above 80%.