Adaptive tetralactam macrocycle based polymers for efficient and rapid removal of organic micropollutants with wide scope

With the rapid urbanization and industrialization of human society, water pollution issues caused by the increasing types and quantities of organic micropollutants have become increasingly severe. It is very urgent but also challenging to develop the rapid and efficient method for water purification with a wide removal scope. Herein, a cross-linked polymer adsorbent was fabricated by adaptive tetralactam macrocycle for rapid and efficient removal of multiple types of organic micropollutants in water, including dyes, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and hormones. The removal efficiencies for the 20 tested organic micropollutants with diverse structures, sizes, and charges are all larger than 95.9 % and approaching 99.9 %, and most of the adsorption processes were finished within 5 min. The well-preorganized and adaptive cavity of tetralactam macrocycle endows the polymer adsorbent with excellent adsorption performance even in extreme conditions. Moreover, the tetralactam macrocycle-crosslinked polymer adsorbent could be regenerated easily and the performance was maintained after 6 cycles. It is demonstrated that the as-developed polymer has great potential in the removal of various hazardous organic pollutants in water.