Preparation of the poly(styrene) based imidazole containing quaternary chloroacetamide modified sorbent for removal of phenol

Crosslinked copolymer beads were prepared by suspension polymerization of 4-vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) and ethyleneglycole dimethacrylate (EGDMA) mixtures. The resulting copolymer beads with quaternary amide functions were prepared in two steps: (1) modification of imidazole with PVBC and (2) quaternization of imidazole modified beads with chloroacetamide. The resulting polymer resin, which had a chloroacetamide content of 4.50-mmol/g, was effective in extracting phenol from aqueous solutions. The phenol sorption capacity was around 0.208-g phenol/g resin in non-buffered conditions. The adsorption conditions (initial phenol concentration and pH) were varied to evaluate the mechanism of adsorption of phenol on the prepared resin. This resin is also able to remove phenol completely even from highly diluted aqueous phenol solutions.