On-column concentration of bisphenol A with one-step removal of humic acids in water

An efficient extraction method for bisphenol A from environmental water including contaminants was developed using surface selective localization of functional group, on a polymeric separation device. The polymer utilized in this study was prepared through a kind of molecular imprinting technique, namely fragment imprinting effect utilizing a pseudo-template molecule (p-tert.-butylphenol) instead of bisphenol A. The concentration of bisphenol A onto the polymer device prepared, up to 1000 times concentration from environmental water including contaminants (humic acids), was achieved very easily with interesting exclusion effect for humic acids. The results obtained in this study suggest that molecular imprinting with the pseudo-template molecule is quite an effective way for selective concentration of the diluted target molecule from other contaminants including similar functional group with the target molecule.