Solid-phase extraction of selected acidic pharmaceuticals from wastewater using a molecularly imprinted polymer

In this study, molecular modeling was used to investigate the intermolecular interactions between the functional monomer and ketoprofen which is an acidic pharmaceutical that possesses anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. Ketoprofen is widely employed in medical care for treating musculoskeletal injury. This led to rational design of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) that is selective to ketoprofen. Density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/6-31 level was used to investigate the intermolecular interaction between functional monomers and ketoprofen. Binding energy, ΔE, was used as an indication of the strength of the interaction that occurs between functional monomers and ketoprofen. 2-vinylpyridine (2-VP) as one of the functional monomers gave the lowest binding energy when compared to all the functional monomers investigated. Monomer-template interactions were further experimentally investigated using spectroscopic techniques such as Ultraviolet-visible and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). A selective MIP for ketoprofen was synthesized using 2-vinylpyridine, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, 1,1’-azobis(cyclohexanecarbonitrile), toluene/acetonitrile (9:1, v/v), and ketoprofen as a functional monomer, cross-linker, initiator, porogenic mixture, and template, respectively. The polymerization was performed at 60 °C for 16 h, and thereafter the temperature was increased to 80 °C for 24 h to achieve a solid monolith polymer. The non-imprinted polymer (NIP) was synthesized in a similar manner with the omission of ketoprofen. Characterization with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the synthesized polymers were thermally stable and amorphous. Morphology of the particles were clearly visible, with MIP showing rough and irregular surface compared to NIP on the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The characterization of the prominent functional groups on both MIP and NIP were performed using FTIR and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The existence of hydroxyl was observed in the MIP; this was due to the presence of ketoprofen in the cavity. Prominent carbonyl group was an indication of the cross-linker present in both polymers. The synthesized MIP was applied as a selective sorbent in the solid-phase extraction of ketoprofen from the water. The extracted ketoprofen was monitored by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with UV/Vis detector. Several parameters were investigated for maximum recovery of ketoprofen from the spiked deionized water. The optimum method involved the conditioning of 14 mg MIP sorbent with 5 mL of methanol followed by equilibrating with 5 mL of deionized water adjusted to pH 2.5. Thereafter, 50 mL sample (pH 5) was loaded into the cartridge containing MIP sorbent followed by washing and eluting with 1% TEA/H2O and 100% methanol, respectively. Eluted compounds were quantified with HPLC. MIP was more selective to ketoprofen in the presence of other structural related competitors. The analytical method gave detection limits of 0.23, 0.17, and 0.09 mg L-1 in wastewater influent, effluent, and deionized water, respectively. The recovery for the wastewater influent and effluent spiked with 5 µg L-1 of ketoprofen was 68%, whereas 114% was obtained for deionized water. The concentrations of ketoprofen in the influent and effluent samples were in the ranges of 22.5 - 34.0 and 1.14 - 5.33 mg.L-1, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) given as ± values indicates that the developed analytical method for the analysis of ketoprofen in wastewater was rapid, affordable, accurate, precise, sensitive, and selective.