Suzanne Setti

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Shipman, Steven

Keywords

Nanoparticles, Magnetics, Herbicides

Area of Concentration

Chemistry

Abstract

Magnetic molecularly imprinted core-shell nanoparticles (magnetite core, silica shell) were prepared for the selective removal of prometon, a commonly detected herbicide in urban areas, from solution. In theory, prometon binds to surface sites which are tailored to the shape and size of prometon and which contain specific hydrogen bonding partners and the magnetic cores allow for easy removal of the bound prometon from solution. The extent of prometon removal was monitored via UV spectroscopy from 200-300 nm. Adsorption studies carried out with the synthesized nanoparticles revealed that approximately 1.5% of the prometon in solution adsorbed to the nanoparticles after 30 minutes. While comparable to results in the literature, these results were difficult to duplicate. Surface binding sites were also simulated using Gaussian 09 and visualized using VMD. These ab initio calculations could prove to be useful for both predicting the extent of rebinding in a particular imprinted structure as well as a design tool for exploring candidates for future improvements.

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