Synthesis and characterization of new nano-structured molecularly imprinted polymer coated magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotubes for selective separation of ketoconazole from aqueous solutions

In this work, new magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MMWNTs-MIPs) were synthesized with specific selectivity to ketoconazole (KTZ) as antifungal drug. Firstly, N-(4-carboxy Phenyl) trimellitimide diisosyanate (NTDI), was prepared from reaction of Trimellitic anhydride (1), 4-amino benzoic acid (2) in two steps. Then, methacrylic acid was functionalized by β-cyclodextrin and diisosyanate (MAA-NTDIS-β-CD). MAA- NTDIS-β-CD were used as a functional monomer, ketoconazole as a template, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as cross–linking agent and 2,2´- azobisisobu-tyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator. The synthetic compound was characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) techniques, X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The effect of parameters such as solution pH, contact time, temperature and initial concentrations in controlled release of ketoconazole using MMWCNTs-MIP have been estimated. Batch mode adsorption experiment was carried out to investigate the specific adsorption kinetics of the MMWCNTs-MIP. The MMWCNTs-MIP shown good affinity with a maximum adsorption capacity of 49.26 mol g−1and exceptional selectivity toward KTZ