Novel Cu (II) magnetic ion imprinted materials prepared by surface imprinted technique combined with a sol–gel process

Abstract

A novel Cu (II) magnetic ion-imprinted polymer (MIIP) was synthesized by surface imprinting technique combined with a sol–gel process. The adsorbent of Cu (II)-MIIP shows higher capacity and selectivity than that of magnetic non-imprinted polymers (MNIP). Adsorption capacities of Cu (II)-MIIP and MNIP are 24.2 and 5.2 mg/g for Cu (II) ions, respectively. The selectivity coefficients of the Cu (II)-MIIP for Cu (II)/Zn (II) and Cu (II)/Ni (II) are 91.84 and 133.92, respectively. Kinetics studies show that the adsorption process obeys pseudo-second-order rate mechanism with an initial adsorption rate of 132.48 for Cu (II)-MIIP and 2.41 mg g −1 min −1 for MNIP. In addition, no obvious decrease was observed after up to five adsorption cycles, indicating that the Cu (II)-MIIP is of high stability.