Adsorption properties of mesoporous silicas for organic pollutants in water Original Research Article

Synthesis of mesoporous silica materials is performed respectively using self-assembling micellar aggregates of two surfactants: cetylpyridinium bromide (CPB) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The retention properties have been studied of these two kinds mesoporous silicas towards environmental pollutants (mono-, di-, tri-chloroacetic acid, toluene, naphthalene and methyl orange). LC and suppressed ion chromatography have been used to evaluate the retaining amount of analytes on the mesoporous silica materials. The effect of the composition (presence and absence of surfactants, different kinds of surfactants) on the sorption performance has been considered. As-prepared materials show excellent retention performance toward chloroacetic acids, toluene, naphthalene and methyl orange. The materials without surfactants does not show, if any, affinity for ionic and non-ionic analytes. All this provides the basis for potential applications of these mesoporous silica materials as preconcentrators and sorptive chromatographic substrates for selective separation and/or enrichment (removal) of specific classes of analytes.