Synthesis and Characterizations of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer of Atrazine: Removal of Atrazine from Aqueous Samples

Abstract

Atrazine (ATZ) is a widely used triazine herbicide in agriculture, however, it negatively affects the environment and human health. Therefore, a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was employed for the selective removal of ATZ. In this study, MIPs were produced by precipitation polymerization using ATZ as the target molecule, methacrylic acid (MAA), acrylamide (AAm), and 2‐vinylpyridine (2VP) as functional monomers and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as cross‐linker, respectively. MIP characterizations were performed using Fourier Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Field Emission Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The batch binding study revealed that MIP (2VP) exhibited the highest rebinding efficiency (88.44 %) among the MIPs. Furthermore, MIP (2VP) was analyzed by Energy‐Dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX), Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller (BET) analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Adsorption studies revealed that the optimum conditions for maximum adsorption efficiency were 8 ppm ATZ solution at pH 7, using 0.3 g of MIP (2VP). MIP (2VP) demonstrated higher selectivity towards ATZ than the Ametryn (AME) a competitive interferent, with a relative selectivity coefficient of 2.77. MIP (2VP) successfully removed ATZ from distilled water (95.39 %), tap water (88.16 %) and river water (86.75 %). These findings contributed for the development of MIP for the removal of ATZ, which would be helpful in the protection of ecosystem and human health in future.