Enhanced adsorption of atrazine from aqueous solution by molecularly imprinted TiO2 film

TiO 2 film imprinted by atrazine molecule at the surface of quartz crystal was prepared using molecular imprinting and surface sol-gel process. The molecularly imprinted TiO 2 film was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry , and the atrazine adsorption was investigated by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique. In comparison with non-imprinted TiO 2 film, the molecularly imprinted TiO 2 film exhibits high selectivity for atrazine, better reversibility and a much higher adsorption capacity for the target molecule, the adsorption equilibrium constant estimated from the in situ frequency measurement is about 6.7 × 10 4  M −1 , which is thirteen times higher than that obtained on non-imprinted TiO 2 film.