Preparation of Cotton Fabrics Coated with Molecularly Imprinted Polymers/Carbon Dots and Application for Nonylphenol Detection in Environmental Samples

In this research molecularly imprinted polymers/carbon dots (MIP/CDs) for nonylphenol (NP) detection were prepared in solution system and on tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide modified cotton fabrics (CF). The MIP/CDs were synthesized in the presence of NP as a template, using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) as a functional monomer and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as a crosslinker. After removal of original template molecules, the cotton fabrics coated with MIP/CDs (CF-MIP/CDs) exhibited strong fluorescent property and high selectivity. The morphological characteristics of the CF-MIP/CDs were investigated using FTIR, SEM and EDS, respectively. The adsorption behavior of the CF-MIP/CDs was described using Freundlich adsorption isotherm and pseudo-first order kinetic models. The maximum adsorption capacity of the CF-MIP/CDs was 1111 ug/g and the adsorption equilibrium could be achieved about 10 min. The fluorescent response for NP was preliminarily investigated with smartphone and ImageJ program for Gray intensity measurement. The proposed method was successfully applied for the detection of NP in soil samples with the recoveries from 99.2-101.2% and the relative standard deviation from 0.52-14.6%, showing promising potential application in environmental sample analysis.