Adsorption selectivity of salicylic acid and 5-sulfosalicylic acid onto hypercrosslinked polymeric adsorbents

Both bottle-point and column-feeding experiments involving different solutes and sorbents were carried out to investigate the adsorption selectivity and separation performance of salicylic acid and 5-sulfosalicylic acid. Their adsorption isotherms onto such hypercrosslinked polymeric adsorbents as NDA-100 and NDA-99 could be well described by the Freundlich equations whose characteristics describe extrathermic and favorable adsorption processes. The adsorption towards NDA-100 mainly depended on the π-π interaction, while that towards NDA-99 was extremely influenced by the static-electric interaction. Additionally, the adsorptive capacity of salicylic acid on NDA-99 decreased while it increased on NDA-100 with the presence of 5-sulfosalicylic acid in the adsorptive environment as the competitive component. Comparatively, the adsorption capacity of 5-sulfosalicylic acid decreased on both resins with salicylic acid as the competitive component. In fact, the difference in the interaction between adsorbent and adsorbate resulted in the straight antagonism on the effective adsorption sites on the adsorbent. In conclusion, the adsorption selectivity of salicylic acid onto NDA-100 was obviously larger than that onto NDA-99 with the existence of 5-sulfosalicylic acid in the adsorptive environment. A satisfactory separation and recovery of tested solutes in aqueous phase could be foreseeably achieved by the sequencing adsorption technique involving NDA-100 as well as NDA-99.