(536d) Development of Novel Crosslinked Polymers for the Capture of Environmental Pollutants

Rishabh Shah, Thomas D. Dziubla, J. Zach Hilt

Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

 University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506

Corresponding Author: zach.hilt@uky.edu

The ubiquitous nature of persistent organic pollutants (POP), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), have gained great attention, and many efforts are being made to eliminate these contaminants from the environment. Capture of these pollutants using polymeric materials from the environment is one remediation strategy. In this research, aromatic monomers and crosslinkers based on polyphenolic compounds have been studied, since we expect these functionalities to have high affinity for PCBs due to π-π stacking interactions.

The overall goal of this project was to develop novel crosslinked polymers and their composites that have high affinity towards PCBs and compare their binding properties. Novel monomers and crosslinkers were initially synthesized by acrylation of 4,4-dihydroxybiphenyl, 4-phenylphenol, 2-phenylphenol, and the acrylated forms were identified as 44BMA, 4PPMA, 2PPMA respectively. These monomers were characterized by various techniques, including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for their melting temperature and NMR to confirm their structure. Subsequently, crosslinked polymer films were synthesized using styrene, 4PPMA, and 2PPMA as monomers and crosslinked with different amounts of 44BMA. These films were then characterized using swelling studies in different solvents, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and binding studies with PCBs, etc.