In this paper, macroporous glycidyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate copolymer functionalized with diethylene triamine [PGME-deta], was evaluated as Reactive Black 5 (RB5) sorbent. Batch RB5 removal from aqueous solution by PGME-deta was investigated by varying pH, contact time, sorbent dosage, initial dye concentration and temperature. The sorption is pH sensitive having maximum at pH 2 (dye removal of 85%), decreasing with the increase of pH (dye removal of 24% at pH=11) after 60 min. Sorption kinetics was fitted to chemical-reaction and particle-diffusion models (pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, intraparticle diffusion and Mckay models). The pseudo-second-order kinetic model accurately predicted the RB5 amount sorbed under all investigated operating conditions, while the intraparticle diffusion was the dominant rate-limiting mechanism. The diffusion mechanism was more prevalent with the decrease in temperature and the increase in concentration. The isotherm data was best fitted with the Langmuir model, indicating homogeneous distribution of active sites on PGME-deta and monolayer sorption, with the maximum sorption capacity of 353 mg g-1. The calculated sorption rates improved with increasing temperature and an activation energy close to 40 kJ mol-1 was determined, suggesting that chemisorption was also rate-controlling. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 43009, br. TR 37021 i br. III 45001]

Macroporous nanocomposite of poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) and acid modified bentonite was prepared by radical suspension copolymerization. Nanocomposite was functionalized with diethylenetriamine (DETA), by ring-opening reaction of the pendant epoxy groups. Functionalization was performed in order to enable phenol derivatives sorption. This new, not sufficiently investigated material, with developed porous structure was denoted CP-S A -DETA. In this study, the influence of temperature on 4-nitrophenol (4NP) sorption on CP-S A -DETA was investigated. The chemisorption was estimated as dominant process since activation energy of sorption of 4NP of 54.8 kJ mol -1 was obtained. After determining the optimal sorption conditions for 4NP, the sorption of 2-nitrophenol (2NP) and 2-chloro-4-nitrophenol (2Cl4NP) on CP-S A -DETA was investigated with respect to pH, initial concentration and contact time. The 2NP sorption was seldom tested, while according to our knowledge, the 2Cl4NP sorption was not investigated. The isotherm data were best fitted with Langmuir model, while the sorption dynamics obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model for all derivatives.