Efficient adsorptive removal of dibenzothiophene by graphene oxide-based surface molecularly imprinted polymer

Molecularly imprinted polymers on GO nanosheets (MIPs/GO) for desulfurization are synthesized using dibenzothiophene (DBT) as template, methacrylic acid (MAA) as monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as cross-linker. The formation of this hybrid material is verified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric and atomic force microscopy analysis. The adsorption results show that the prepared MIPs/GO exhibit excellent adsorption capacity (up to 181.9 mg g^-1 at 298 K) and fast mass transfer and binding kinetics for DBT. The kinetics and isotherm data can be well described by the pseudo-first-order kinetic model and the Freundlich isotherm, respectively. Competitive adsorption experiments demonstrate that MIPs/GO show higher affinity toward target molecule DBT than toward structural analogue benzothiophene.