Miniemulsion polymerization of cyclodextrin nanospheres for water purification from organic pollutants

The pollution of groundwater and wells has become an environmental and economic hazard as a result of waste spillage, and industrial applications such as pesticides in agriculture. Conventional treatment techniques such as sand filtration, sedimentation, flocculation, coagulation, chlorination, and activated carbon are not very effective in reducing the concentration of the organic pollutants in the presence of dissolved organic matter. The objective of the current work is to design an efficient technology for water purification from organic contaminants by a new class of polymeric nanospheres based on cyclodextrins as building blocks. We synthesized a series of cross-linked cyclodextrin polymeric nanospheres of different sizes by a unique method, miniemulsion polymerization. These cyclodextrin nanospheres exhibit a high ability to absorb aromatic organic molecules such as toluene and phenol. Sorption experiments in solutions with high concentrations of corresponding organic molecules show a high adsorption capacity. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.