Molecularly imprinted polymers derived from lignin-based Pickering emulsions and their selectively adsorption of lambda-cyhalothrin

• Lignin was utilized as stabilizer to fabricate molecularly imprinted polymers.
• Lignin without modification could irreversible attachment at the oil/water interface.
• Hydrophobic surface of MIPs-LC was benefit for adsorption lambda-cyhalothrin.

Lignin particles were used as stabilizers to establish a stable Pickering oil–water emulsion, and then the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were fabricated by radical polymerization in the presence of functional and cross-linked monomers in the oil phase. As-prepared MIPs were observed with a diameter from 10 μm to 65 μm when oil/water ratio increased from 0.11 to 0.68, and exhibited thermal stability and hydrophobic surface. A series of static adsorption experiments were conducted to analyze their adsorption performance for lambda-cyhalothrin (LC). The preliminary results showed that MIPs possessed good recognition toward LC, that is, the adsorption equilibrium time was about 3.0 h and the equilibrium adsorption amount was 72.25 μmol g−1 for MIPs and 43.10 μmol g−1 for nonimprinted Polymers (NIPs), respectively, indicating the enhanced selectively adsorption of LC. The adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order model by the kinetic analysis and Freundlich equation by the isothermal analysis, respectively. The selective recognition experiments displayed the outstanding selective adsorption effect of the MIPs for target LC. Moreover, the obtained MIPs could be effectively regenerated and recycled at less three times without significant loss of adsorption capacity.

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