Rational preparation of dibenzothiophene-imprinted polymers by surface imprinting technique combined with atom transfer radical polymerization

• Published in: Applied surface science 2013-10, Vol.282, p.809-819
• Main Authors: Yang, Wenming, Liu, Lukuan, Zhou, Zhiping, Liu, Hong, Xie, Binze, Xu, Wanzhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorbent; Adsorbents; Adsorption; Atom transfer radical polymerization; Computational simulation; Computer simulation; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Dibenzothiophene; Exact sciences and technology; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Monomers; Physics; Polymers; Radicals; Surface chemistry; Surface imprinted polymers
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.06.063

•Surface imprinted technique and ATRP were introduced to design the adsorbent.•Computational simulation was introduced for preparing the adsorbent.•Various adsorption performance analyses were carried out. A computational simulation method is introduced to simulate the dibenzothiophene-monomer pre-assembly system of molecular imprinted polymers. The interaction type and intensity between dibenzothiophene and monomer are discussed from the binding energy and spatial position distribution. The simulation and analysis results indicate that the amount of the function monomer is not the more the better in preparing molecular imprinted polymers. Based on the above results, a novel dibenzothiophene-imprinted polymers with the favorable specific adsorption effect was prepared by surface imprinting technique combined with atom transfer radical polymerization. This combined technologies are used for preparing a desulfurization adsorbent for the first time. Various measures were selected to characterize the structure and morphology of the prepared adsorbent. The characterization results show that the adsorbent has suitable features for further adsorption process. A series of static adsorption experiments were conducted to analyze its adsorption performance. The adsorption process follows Elovich model by the kinetic analysis and Sips equation by the isothermal analysis. The approach we described will provide another opportunity in the deep desulfurization field.