Developing a Molecularly Imprinted Channels Catalyst Based on Template Effect for Targeted Removal of Organic Micropollutants from Wastewaters

Herein, a novel catalyst with three-dimensional molecularly imprinted channels (3D-MICs) was proposed to preferentially remove the noxious organic micropollutants (OMPs) from wastewaters. Benefited from the synergy of template effect, spatial confinement, and size-exclusion effect , the 3D-MICs catalysts exhibited the robust selectivity (the imprinting factor of 2.04), large adsorption capacity (22.50 mg•g -1 ), and complete degradation for sulfamethoxazole (SMX) concentration at 1 mg•L -1 . Compared with the original MIC-0/ persulfate (PS) system (40%), the SMX removal by MIC-#/PS system still retained over 91% in simulated wastewater, tap water, and polluted river water, respectively. Moreover, the degradation products by MIC-#/PS system showed less quantity (4.6-fold) and lower toxicity than that by original MIC-0/PS system. In-situ ATR-FTIR analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that the specific absorption for the targeted OMPs was dominated by the shape of imprinted cavity, hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic-hydrophobic interaction, π-π stacking, and electrostatic interactions. The degradation process involved radical and non-radical pathways