Construction of carboxyl-functionalized hyper-cross-linked porous polymers using waste polystyrene for effective adsorption of phenolic contaminants

Abstract

The extensive presence of phenolic organic contaminants (POCs) poses a serious threat to humans. Meanwhile, the upcycling/reusing of waste polystyrene to reduce the exponential growth of plastic pollution is a very important environmental issue. Addressing these demands, a series of carboxyl-functional hypercrosslinked polymers (labeled PP-HCPs) were constructed by knitting waste polystyrene with pyromellitic dianhydride at different ratios through a one-step Friedel-Crafts reaction for effective adsorption of POCs. Among the prepared PP-HCPs, PP-HCP2 displayed a large specific surface area with high adsorption capacity (37.3 mg g⁻¹) for POCs. Using PP-HCP2 as solid phase extraction sorbent, six POCs were effectively extracted from water and peach drink samples, then subjected to high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection. The method demonstrated good linearity in the range of 0.03–100.0 ng mL⁻¹ for water samples and 0.06–100.0 ng mL⁻¹ for peach drinks under optimum experimental conditions. At a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, low detection limits were found to be 0.01–0.10 ng mL⁻¹ for water samples and 0.02–0.15 ng mL⁻¹ for peach drinks. Good accuracy and repeatability were achieved with recoveries of 85.3–111.8 % and the relative standard deviations below 8.6 %. The PP-HCP2-based approach can be employed as a dependable and sensitive tool to detect POCs in water and peach drink samples. This work delivers a simple and economically viable approach to fabricate carboxyl-functional HCPs by converting waste foam into high-value-added sorbent, with great significance for sustainable development.