A cucurbit[8]uril based supramolecular assembly and its potential applications for the removal of dye and antibiotic from an aqueous medium

Lulu Shi; Lin Wang; Mingchun Li; Mei Liu

doi:10.1039/d4ra00347k

A cucurbit[8]uril based supramolecular assembly and its potential applications for the removal of dye and antibiotic from an aqueous medium

RSC Adv. 2024 Mar 11;14(12):8161-8166. doi: 10.1039/d4ra00347k. eCollection 2024 Mar 6.

Authors

Lulu Shi¹, Lin Wang¹, Mingchun Li¹, Mei Liu²

Affiliations

¹ College of Material Science and Engineering, Huaqiao University, Engineering Research Center of Environment-Friendly Functional Materials, Ministry of Education Xiamen 361021 P.R. China mcli@hqu.edu.cn.
² School of Chemistry and Life Science, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Changchun University of Technology Changchun 130012 P.R. China liumei@ccut.edu.cn.

Abstract

CB[8]-based supramolecular assembly, i.e., 2CB[8]·[ZnCl₄]·4H₂O (1) (CB[8] = cucurbit[8]uril), was synthesized under solvothermal condition in the presence of [ZnCl₄]^2- anions as a structure inducer. 1 was applied as a high-efficiency absorbent to remove the commonly used dye amaranth (AMR) and an antibacterial drug of broad-spectrum sulfadiazine sodium (SFZ) from the aqueous solution. It showed an excellent removal rate and could remove 96.08% and 96.21% for AMR and SMZ, respectively. The adsorption behaviors were investigated using FT-IR. The differences in IR spectra revealed that the formation of inclusion complexes is the main driving force of adsorption. The phenyl and sulfonyl or sulfone moieties of AMR and SFZ entered the cavity of CB[8] in 1, and the adsorption mechanism could be due to the formation of inclusion complexes of AMR and SFZ in the CB[8] cavities of 1. This work illustrates the application prospects of CB[8]-based supramolecular assembly in environmental protection.