Selective separation of salicylic acid from aqueous solutions using molecularly imprinted nano-polymer on wollastonite synthesized by oil-in-water microemulsion method

Highly effective molecularly imprinted nano-polymer on wollastonite (nano-WMIP) was prepared by imprinting technique using oil-in-water emulsion polymerization in the presence of salicylic acid (SA) as template. The adsorption behavior of nano-WMIP including adsorption kinetic, isotherms, selective adsorption, recognition, and effects of initial pH, ionic strength, initial concentration, adsorption temperature, and amount of adsorbents were investigated in detail. Moreover, the selective recognition of nano-WMIP was further investigated by HPLC toward analogs of SA. The relative selectivity coefficients for p-HB, MS, and MP were 113.4, 8.049, and 6.239, respectively, showing that much higher selectivity of SA on nano-WMIP was obtained than that of wollastonite-based non-imprinted polymer (nano-WNIP).