Installation of synergistic binding sites onto porous organic polymers for efficient removal of perfluorooctanoic acid

Xiongli Liu; Changjia Zhu; Jun Yin; Jixin Li; Zhiyuan Zhang; Jinli Li; Feng Shui; Zifeng You; Zhan Shi; Baiyan Li; Xian-He Bu; Ayman Nafady; Shengqian Ma

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29816-1

Installation of synergistic binding sites onto porous organic polymers for efficient removal of perfluorooctanoic acid

Nat Commun. 2022 Apr 19;13(1):2132. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29816-1.

Authors

Xiongli Liu¹, Changjia Zhu², Jun Yin^{3

4}, Jixin Li⁵, Zhiyuan Zhang¹, Jinli Li¹, Feng Shui¹, Zifeng You¹, Zhan Shi⁵, Baiyan Li⁶, Xian-He Bu⁷, Ayman Nafady⁸, Shengqian Ma⁹

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, National Institute for Advanced Materials, TKL of Metal and Molecule-Based Material Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, P. R. China.
² Department of Chemistry, University of North Texas 1508W Mulberry St, Denton, TX, 76201, USA.
³ Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; KAUST Catalysis Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.
⁶ School of Materials Science and Engineering, National Institute for Advanced Materials, TKL of Metal and Molecule-Based Material Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, P. R. China. libaiyan@nankai.edu.cn.
⁷ School of Materials Science and Engineering, National Institute for Advanced Materials, TKL of Metal and Molecule-Based Material Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, P. R. China. buxh@nankai.edu.cn.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, University of North Texas 1508W Mulberry St, Denton, TX, 76201, USA. Shengqian.Ma@unt.edu.

Abstract

Herein, we report a strategy to construct highly efficient perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) adsorbents by installing synergistic electrostatic/hydrophobic sites onto porous organic polymers (POPs). The constructed model material of PAF-1-NDMB (NDMB = N,N-dimethyl-butylamine) demonstrates an exceptionally high PFOA uptake capacity over 2000 mg g^-1, which is 14.8 times enhancement compared with its parent material of PAF-1. And it is 32.0 and 24.1 times higher than benchmark materials of DFB-CDP (β-cyclodextrin (β-CD)-based polymer network) and activated carbon under the same conditions. Furthermore, PAF-1-NDMB exhibits the highest k₂ value of 24,000 g mg^-1 h^-1 among all reported PFOA sorbents. And it can remove 99.99% PFOA from 1000 ppb to <70 ppt within 2 min, which is lower than the advisory level of Environmental Protection Agency of United States. This work thus not only provides a generic approach for constructing PFOA adsorbents, but also develops POPs as a platform for PFOA capture.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Binding Sites
Caprylates
Fluorocarbons* / chemistry
Polymers*
Porosity

Substances

Caprylates
Fluorocarbons
Polymers
perfluorooctanoic acid