PRECIPITATION POLYMERIZATION OF MOLECULARLY IMPRINTED POLYMER FOR EXTRACTION OF 16 US EPA "CONSENT DECREE" POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS FROM ROAD DUST

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) composing of benzo[k]fluoranthene imprinted and Indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene- imprinted were synthesized by thermal polymerization method using 2-vinylpyridine and 4-vinylpyridine as complementary functional monomers and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker in two different porogenic solvents: tetrahydrofuran (THF), and acetonitrile (ACN) and their mixture, and non-imprinted polymers (NIPs) as control were also synthesized using the same procedure in the absence of template, and screened from several re-binding experiments used for isolation of the 16 US-EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from spiked solution. The selective performance of MIPs and NIPs from the single porogenic solvent and their mixture were evaluated by static, kinetic and selective adsorption experiments. The imprinted microspheres could be used as the stationary phase in HPLC or SPE for selective extraction of 16 US EPA “Consent Decree” PAHs. The MIPs mixture consisting of benzo[k]fluoranthene-imprinted and Indeno [1,2,3-cd] pyrene at 1:1 (w/w) synthesized in THF exhibited good adsorption and recognition ability to the 16 EPA PAHs because of the low dielectric constant of THF and enhanced π-π interaction between the complementary functional monomers and the template molecules. In addition, the reusability of the MIP without a decline in performance was demonstrated in at least ten repeated cycles.