Design of Copper Ion Selective Polymers by Molecular Imprinting Approach

Molecular imprinting techniques have reached tremendous importance in the research of new artificial recognition systems. The investigation reports the preparation of Cu (II) ion selective polymer with high specificity and selectivity by molecular imprinting approach. For this 4-vinyl pyridine was chosen as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the crosslinking agent and azo-bis-isobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator. Non-imprinted polymers were also synthesized. The polymers were characterized by FT-IR and UV-vis., SEM-EDAX and powder-XRD spectral techniques. The Cu (II) ion concentration was detected by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The FTIR spectra proved that the pyridinal nitrogen in the pyridine unit involved in the metal ion binding. Binding studies proved that the Cu (II) ion specifically rebind the Cu(II) ion than other metal ions. Moreover the developed system showed selectivity towards Cu(II) from a mixture of metal ions.