Preparation and Adsorption Properties of Rhodamine B Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

Molecularly imprinted polymers(MIP) were prepared by bulk polymerization using rhodamine B(RhB) as the template, methacrylic acid(MAA) as the functional monomer, trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate(TRIM) as the crosslinker and acetonitrile as the porogen. Adsorption experiments were carried out on the MIP to select the optimum monomer and porogen amount. Scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectrometry were employed to observe the morphology of the polymers. Equilibrium adsorption and selectivity experiments were performed. The results revealed that the imprinted polymers showed better adsorption properties and selective recognition capacity. The maximum adsorption capacity was 370.49 μg/g at a concentration of 15 μg/mL. The equilibrium was reached in 150 minutes.