A Novel Hyperbranched Phase Transporter for Extraction of Water-soluble Dyes in Industrial Wastewater

Methacrylated hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG-MA) is successfully synthesized through transesterification by controlling the ratio of HPG to glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The concentration of the dye or phase transporter, temperature, contact time, and molecular weight of phase transporter were taken into consideration to evaluate the removal ratio and transfer capability. With malachite green optimized as a model dye, HPG-MA could reach a maximum adsorption of 990 mg/g at the feed concentration of 1 g/L, and the removal ratio is 99% compared with ~20 h for other reported phase transporters, which indicates that HPG-MA is a novel phase transporter. HPG-MA can absorb dyes in aqueous solutions, which can be ascribed to the existence of a cavity structure and abundant ether groups. We believe that HPG-MA can have potential applications in the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions due to its high adsorption capacity and eco-friendly nature.