Synthesis and application of ion-imprinted polymer for extraction and pre-concentration of iron ions in environmental water and food samples

Polymeric Materials in Speciation Analysis Based on Solid-Phase Extraction

Speciation analysis is a relevant topic since the (eco)toxicity, bioavailability, bio (geo)chemical cycles, and mobility of a given element depend on its chemical forms (oxidation state, organic ligands, etc.). The reliability of analytical results for chemical species of elements depends mostly on the maintaining of their stability during the sample pretreatment step and on the selectivity of further separation step. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) is a matter of choice as the most suitable and widely used procedure for both enrichment of chemical species of elements and their separation. The features of sorbent material are of great importance to ensure extraction efficiency from one side and selectivity from the other side of the SPE procedure. This review presents an update on the application of polymeric materials in solid-phase extraction used in nonchromatographic methods for speciation analysis.

Development of ion-imprinted polymers for the selective extraction of Cu(II) ions in environmental waters

Several ion-imprinted polymers (IIPs) were synthesized via bulk polymerization with Cu(II) as template ion, methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinking agent, and azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator in acetonitrile or methanol as porogen solvent. Non-imprinted polymers (NIPs) were similarly synthesized but without Cu(II). After grounding and sieving, the template ions were removed from IIPs particles through several cycles of elimination in 3 M HCl. All NIPs were equally subjected to this acid treatment with the exception of one NIP, called unwashed NIP. The resulting IIP/NIP particles were packed in solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges for characterization. The SPE protocol was designed by optimizing a washing step following the sample percolation to eliminate potential interfering ions prior to the elution of Cu(II), all fractions analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The best IIP showed a high specificity (recovery of Cu(II) vs. interfering ions) and a good selectivity (retention on IIP vs. NIP). Its adsorption capacity was determined to be 63 μg g^-1. Then, a volume of 50 mL was percolated with 30 mg of IIP, thus giving rise to an enrichment factor of 24. Finally, applications to real samples (mineral and sea waters) were successfully performed. In addition, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analyses showed that the surface area of the washed NIP was almost double that of the unwashed one (140.70 vs. 74.49 m² g^-1), demonstrating for the first time that the post-treatment of a NIP after its synthesis may have a significant impact on its porous structure, and thus need to be more precisely detailed by authors in the future papers.

Ion-Imprinted Polymeric Materials for Selective Adsorption of Heavy Metal Ions from Aqueous Solution

The introduction of selective recognition sites toward certain heavy metal ions (HMIs) is a great challenge, which has a major role when the separation of species with similar physicochemical features is considered. In this context, ion-imprinted polymers (IIPs) developed based on the principle of molecular imprinting methodology, have emerged as an innovative solution. Recent advances in IIPs have shown that they exhibit higher selectivity coefficients than non-imprinted ones, which could support a large range of environmental applications starting from extraction and monitoring of HMIs to their detection and quantification. This review will emphasize the application of IIPs for selective removal of transition metal ions (including HMIs, precious metal ions, radionuclides, and rare earth metal ions) from aqueous solution by critically analyzing the most relevant literature studies from the last decade. In the first part of this review, the chemical components of IIPs, the main ion-imprinting technologies as well as the characterization methods used to evaluate the binding properties are briefly presented. In the second part, synthesis parameters, adsorption performance, and a descriptive analysis of solid phase extraction of heavy metal ions by various IIPs are provided.

Fe(III)-Complex-Imprinted Polymers for the Green Oxidative Degradation of the Methyl Orange Dye Pollutant

One of the biggest problems worldwide is the pollution of natural water bodies by dyes coming from effluents used in the textile industry. In the quest for novel effluent treatment alternatives, the aim of this work was to immobilize Fe(III) complexes in molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to produce efficient Fenton-like heterogeneous catalysts for the green oxidative degradation of the methyl orange (MO) dye pollutant. Different metal complexes bearing commercial and low-cost ligands were assayed and their catalytic activity levels towards the discoloration of MO by H2O2 were assessed. The best candidates were Fe(III)-BMPA (BMPA = di-(2-picolyl)amine) and Fe(III)-NTP (NTP = 3,3',3″-nitrilotripropionic acid), displaying above 70% MO degradation in 3 h. Fe(III)-BMPA caused the oxidative degradation through two first-order stages, related to the formation of BMPA-Fe-OOH and the generation of reactive oxygen species. Only the first of these stages was detected for Fe(III)-NTP. Both complexes were then employed to imprint catalytic cavities into MIPs. The polymers showed catalytic profiles that were highly dependent on the crosslinking agent employed, with N,N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA) being the crosslinker that rendered polymers with optimal oxidative performance (>95% conversion). The obtained ion-imprinted polymers constitute cheap and robust solid matrices, with the potential to be coupled to dye-containing effluent treatment systems with synchronous H2O2 injection.

Ultrasonic-assisted micro solid phase extraction of arsenic on a new ion-imprinted polymer synthesized from chitosan-stabilized pickering emulsion in water, rice and vegetable samples

Pickering emulsion polymerization has been employed for the Ultrasonic assisted-micro solid phase extraction (UA-µSPE) of ultra trace arsenic species by a new magnetic ion imprinted polymer (MIIP) prior to hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry. 2-acetyl benzofuran thiosemicarbazone (2-ABT) as a new chelating agent and core- shell hydrophobic magnetic nanoparticles was synthesized and the polymerization was carried out at the presence of arsenic - ligand complex, crosslinker, monomer, initiator, stabilizing agent and water-oil emulsion magnetic carrier. In second step, the nanoparticles and polymers were characterized. The analytical parameters such as pH, amount of polymer and ultrasonic time were selected and optimozed by Plackett-Burman and Box-Behnken designs respectively. Linear dynamic range, detection limit and relative standard deviation were 0.01-85.000 µg·L^-l, 0.003 µg·L^-l, and 3.21%, respectively. The proposed preconcentration procedure was successfully applied to the determination of arsenic ion in a wide range of food samples with different and complex matrixes.

Fabrication of chromium-imprinted polymer: a real magneto-selective sorbent for the removal of Cr(vi) ions in real water samples

Graphical representation (a and b) show the procedure for the synthesis of Cr(vi) ion-imprinted magnetic polymer.

Anti-fouling and thermosensitive ion-imprinted nanocomposite membranes based on grapheme oxide and silicon dioxide for selectively separating europium ions

The increasing amount of europium in aqueous environment from rare earth industry has become a serious environmental challenge. Significant efforts have been focused on ion-imprinting membranes (IIMs) for selective separation of ions from analogues. Based on ion-imprinting technique, we have developed Eu³⁺-imprinted nanocomposite membranes (Eu-IIMs) for selectively separating Eu³⁺ from La³⁺, Gd³⁺ and Sm³⁺. Polydopamine (pDA) was previously synthesized on basal membranes to augment the interfacial adhesion. Grapheme oxide (GO) and modified silicon dioxide (kSiO₂) were synergistically stacked on pDA-modified substrates to form hydrophilic nanocomposite membranes. Ag nanoparticles were modified on the surface to enhance anti-fouling performance. The temperature-controlled selective recognition sites were formed using N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAm) and acrylamide (Am) as functional monomers as well as europium ions as templates by RAFT (reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer) method. Large enhanced Eu³⁺-rebinding capacity (101.14 mg g^-1), adsorptive selectivity (1.82, 1.57, 1.45 for Eu³⁺/La³⁺, Eu³⁺/Gd³⁺, Eu³⁺/Sm³⁺) and permselectivity (3.82, 3.47, 3.34 for La³⁺/Eu³⁺, Gd³⁺/Eu³⁺, Sm³⁺/Eu³⁺) were achieved on Eu-IIMs with superior regeneration performance. Additionally, the negligible damage of the membranes after buried for 20 d indicated the superior anti-fouling property of the Eu-IIMs. The ion-imprinted nanocomposite membranes synthesized in this work have shown great potentials for selective separation of rare earth ions.

Synthesis and application of a novel core-shell-shell magnetic ion imprinted polymer as a selective adsorbent of trace amounts of silver ions

Ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) technology has received considerable attention for its greatest potential application. In this work, a novel magnetic nano ion-imprinted polymer (MIIP) for the selective and sensitive pre-concentration of silver (I) ions were used. It was obtained using Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2 nanoparticles as a magnetic support of adsorbent, Ag(I)-2,4-diamino-6-phenyl-1,3,5-triazine (DPT) complex as the template molecule and methacrylic acid (MAA), 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), as the functional monomer, the radical initiator and crosslinker, respectively. The synthesized polymer nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). Silver ions were separate from the polymer and measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The maximum adsorption capacity of the novel imprinted adsorbent for Ag(I) was calculated to be 62.5 mg g−1. The developed method was applied to the preconcentration of the analyte in the water, radiology film and food samples, and satisfactory results were obtained.

Development of flow injection analysis-solid phase extraction based on ion imprinted polymeric nanoparticles as an efficient and selective technique for preconcentration of zinc ions from aqueous solution

Here, a new flow injection analysis-solid phase extraction (FIA-SPE) technique was developed by using zinc ion imprinted polymeric nanoparticles (Zn-IIP NPs) for the separation and preconcentration of Zn²⁺ions from aqueous solutions.