Synthesis, characterization of ion imprinted polymeric nanoparticles for selective extraction and purification of 65Cu

Copper is an important element which is widely used in electrical power, metallurgy and as a target for production of radio pharmacy. 65Cu stable isotope is used to produce 65Zn in a cyclotron for medical applications [1-3]. This work presents synthesizing of a copper ion imprinted polymeric nanoparticles based on the inclusion of 4-vinylbenzoic acid (4-VB) as a ligand into the polymer matrix to complex with copper ions. The prepared complex was then copolymerized with ethylene glycoldimethacrylate, methyl methacrylate and 2, 2-azobis-isobutyronitrile in 2-methoxyethanol via a precipitation polymerization method. Moreover, non-imprinted polymeric (NIP) particles were similarly prepared without Cu (II) ion. The characterization of polymers was carried out by Uv-vis, FT-IR, SEM, EDX, TGA-DSC, BET, ICP-AES. The effect of several parameters such as solution’s pH, sorption and desorption time, type, concentration and volume of eluent on the extraction of the polymers were investigated and optimized by one variable at the time. Optimized parameters were, pH 6; mass sorbent 0.1 g; sorption time, 30 min; desorption time 10 min; aqueous phase volume, 10 mL. Moreover, it is found that 20 mL of EDTA (1 M) provided the most effective elution of Cu (II) ion from IIP sorbent. The maximum sorbent capacity of the IIPs was 6.23 mg g−1. The detection and determination limits of the method were evaluated to be 12.00 and 42.70 ng mL-1 respectively. The precision of the method (%RSD, n=5) was % 0.054. The 65Cu recovery yield was % 98.58.