Selective adsorption copper (II) behavior by surface molecular imprinted polymers

The prepared imprinted adsorbent was used for selective separation and determination of Cu(II) supported by potassium tetratitanate whisker materials. The prepared polymer was characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD), which demonstrated that the Cu(II) could be well adsorbed and desorbed on this sorbent. Batch adsorption tests were carried out to examine the effects of solution pH, quiescent time, temperature and initial Cu(II) concentration. The maximum adsorption capacity was 25.53 mg g ^-1 at an initial Cu(II) level of 350.0 mg L ^-1 and sorbent dosage of 1.0 g L ^-1, which was much higher than that of non-imprinted polymers (NIPs). The Langmuir isotherm equation fitted the adsorption isotherm data. The Cu(II)-imprinted polymer adsorbent exhibited a much higher separation and selectivity for the target imprinted ions than other metal ions. The adsorbed sorbent could be easily desorbed by 0.5 mol L ^-1 H ₂SO ₄ solution as eluate at room temperature.