Inclusion and removal of pharmaceutical residues from aqueous solution using water-insoluble cyclodextrin polymers

• Five insoluble cyclodextrin polymers using citric acid as cross-linked agent were prepared.
• Progesterone is extracted alone and in mixture from aqueous solution, in liquid/solid operation.
• Adsorption tests were carried out using continuous up flow column.
• Extraction mechanism was investigated by using numerous methods of characterization.

A novel insoluble cyclodextrin polymers (PolyCyC®) (monopolymer, bipolymer, tripolymer and tetrapolymer) containing different cyclodextrins (α, β, γ-cyclodextrin) crosslinked with citric acid were used for removing progesterone as an endocrine disruptor from aqueous solutions. The adsorption experiments were carried out by using recycling column procedure; results show that these polymers exhibited high adsorption capacities and cycle number more than activated carbon. The effects of initial pH, initial concentration, adsorbent amount, ionic strength, flow rate and temperature were studied but only with β-cyclodextrin polymer, kinetic study was also investigated using different models for all polymers which shows that kinetic extraction can be modeled by pseudo second order model.The different cyclodextrin polymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray analysis, scanning electronic microscopy and surface area analysis.

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