Remediation of Gentamicin from Wastewater Using Magnetic Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

Abstract

In this study, magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (magGe-MIP) were synthesized and used as adsorbents for the removal of gentamicin, an aminoglycoside. After characterization of the synthesized magnetically imprinted polymer, the rebinding ability and the fitting of the adsorption process to the kinetic and isothermal models were determined and compared with a non-imprinted reference polymer (mag-NIP). Accordingly, it was found that the pseudo-second order kinetic model and the Langmuir isothermal model provide a better fit to the adsorption process. The adsorption capacities (q e) for magGe-MIP and mag-NIP were 60.21 mg/g and 15.63 mg/g, respectively. The high selectivity of the prepared magGe-MIP adsorbent toward the template molecule gentamicin was determined by testing its adsorption capacity toward different antibiotics (amoxicillin, nafcillin and neomycin). These results show that the prepared magnetically imprinted polymer offers a new and effective approach for the removal of antibiotics from contaminated waters and environmental remediation.