Grafting Aminated Carbon Nanotubes On Molecularly Imprinted Polymers: Synthesis And Property

The carbon nanotubes grafted methylene blue molecularly imprinted polymers (CNT-MB-MIPs) were prepared by grafting aminated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and copolymerized in the presence of template molecules methylene blue (MB), functional monomers, crosslinkers, and initiators. The results from structural analyses indicate that CNTs were successfully grafted onto the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). The adsorption experiments showed that the adsorption capacity can be affected by grafting CNTs. The adsorption capacity of CNT-MB-MIPs on MB can reach 2793mgg−1 while the initial concentration of MB was 12gL−1, which was higher than that of MB molecularly imprinted polymers (MB-MIPs). Meanwhile, compared with MB-MIPs, CNT-MB-MIPs had a lower adsorption capacity for iron ions, indicating that CNT-MB-MIPs could inhibit the adsorption of iron ions. Adsorption kinetics study showed that the adsorption mechanism of the polymer for MB was in good agreement with the quasi-second-order kinetics model (R2=0.9978) and the adsorption mechanism for iron ions was also in good agreement with the Bangham kinetics model (R2=0.9475). The adsorption isotherm showed that the adsorption process of the two adsorbents was mainly monolayer chemisorption. The remarkable adsorption capacity of CNT-MB-MIPs may be due to the enlargement of adsorption sites on MIPs surface by CNT-NH2 grafting. At the same time, it can inhibit the adsorption of iron ions, because part of the carboxyl groups in CNT-MB-MIPs are bonded by CNTs, led to few carboxyl groups sites left for adsorbing iron ions, thereby the complex between carboxyl groups and iron ions were inhibited.