Ultrasound assistance synthesis of optimized ion imprinted polymer for efficient and selective removal of cobalt ions from waste streams.

Selective recognition of metal ions is a real challenge for a large range of applications especially in sorption purposes. The use of ultrasound in the synthesizing and modifying of sodium alginate-based material is investigated, for enhancing the dispersion, degassing, crosslinking processes and enhance the homogeneity of ion imprinted polymer properties. Cobalt imprinted polymer was prepared using an inexpensive and simple ultrasonic-mediated polymerization process that incorporated dual functional monomers, acrylic acid, and 2-Acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid to feature a multifunctional of carboxylic and sulfonic groups. SEM, TGA, DTA, and EDX were used to analyze the surface morphology. FT-IR study confirmed that the complexation of the Co-IIP was successfully takes place. The ability of the adsorption of ion imprinted was optimized at pH 5. The increase of the temperature from 27 to 52 °C caused the increase in the adsorption capacity. Batch tests have been performed to evaluate the selectivity mechanism, and found that the prepared polymer exhibit excellent selectivity for Cobalt, more than nickel, and strontium at 300°K (single component) were 71, 20, and 12 mg.g−1 respectively. Pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm gave the most satisfactory explanation for the adsorption process. The prepared polymer can be reused 5 times with a very low loss in adsorption capacity. The prepared ion imprinted polymer is efficiently utilized in controlling Co2+ sorption/desorption processes, enabling its successful recovery from complex sample matrices for various applications especially that required separation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]