Polymeric sorbents consisting of a balance of hydrophilic and hydrophobic monomers have gained popularity in the field of separation science. Use of these HLB (hydrophilic-lipophilic balance) polymers is in high demand due to their versatility and ability to extract a range of analytes (polar – nonpolar) directly from aqueous solution. Our aim is to synthesize a series of a copolymer composed of divinylbenzene (DVB) (a lipophilic crosslinking monomer) and N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) (a hydrophilic monomer) with a wide range of monomer ratio and test their extraction efficiency for SPE applications. Divinylbenzene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone polymers with 100:0, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60 DVB/NVP monomer feed ratios were made by monolith polymerization and their absorption efficiencies were assessed by batch binding studies, using different analytes with varying polarities such as adenosine (log Kow = -1.5), caffeine (log Kow = -0.07) and p-toluidine (log Kow = 1.39). Interestingly the binding capacity was maximum for a polymer with 70:30 DVB/NVP feed ratio with recovery as high as 90% and steadily decreased for polymers having 60:40, 50:50, 40:60 DVB/NVP feed ratio. The prepared series of polymer were also tested for the recovery of 35 different analytes with log Kow value ranging from -1.78 to 4.98 from real human urine which proves the usefulness of these polymeric sorbents in the real world analytical application as well. Analytes such as morphine, gabapentin, methamphetamine, fentanyl, buprenorphine, methadone, diazepam, etc. bound to our polymer series and were recovered in yields as high as 95%.

Developing a series of divinylbenzene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone (DVB-co-NVP) polymeric sorbent for application as solid-phase extraction (SPE) material to extract a wide range of analytes

ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

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