Preconcentration and Fluorimetric Determination of 2-Phenylphenol using Magnetic Molecularly Imprinted Polymer

Abstract

In the present work, reusable magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers have been used for the first time as an adsorbent for the determination of 2-phenylphenol. Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers have been used for the selective separation and preconcentration of 2-phenylphenol and native fluorescence has been used for the sensitive determination of the analyte. The developed method is rapid and determination of 2-phenylphenol was completed in 40 minutes. Limit of detection (LOD) of the method was found to be 1.09 µg L-1 and the imprinting factor was found to be 1.87. The linearity of the calibration graph was observed within the range of 5 - 250 µg L-1. Selectivity parameters showed that the specific binding sites were available on the imprinted polymer which was capable of recognizing 2-phenylphenol molecules with their functional groups, size and shape. Scatchard analysis revealed the heterogeneous distribution of binding sites for imprinted polymer and homogeneous binding site for non-imprinted polymer. The interference effects of some organic compounds and characterization studies were also evaluated. The method is applied to tap water samples and the recoveries were found to be in the range of 95.3 and 99.7 %.