Enhanced adsorption of atrazine from aqueous solution by molecularly imprinted TiO2 film

TiO2 film imprinted by atrazine molecule at the surface of quartz crystal was prepared using molecular imprinting and surface sol-gel process. The molecularly imprinted TiO2 film was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry, and the atrazine adsorption was investigated by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique. In comparison with non-imprinted TiO2 film, the molecularly imprinted TiO2 film exhibits high selectivity for atrazine, better reversibility and a much higher adsorption capacity for the target molecule, the adsorption equilibrium constant estimated from the in situ frequency measurement is about 6.7 × 104 M−1, which is thirteen times higher than that obtained on non-imprinted TiO2 film.

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