REMOVAL OF PERYLENE FROM WATER USING BLOCK-COPOLYMER NANOSPHERES OR MICELLES

Water-soluble nanospheres with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) coronas were p repared from poly(2-cinnamoylethyl methacrylate)-block-PAA (PCEMA-b-PA A) and P(CEMA-ran-OEMA)-b-PAA, where ''ran'' denotes the random incorp oration of 2-octanoylethyl methacrylate (OEMA) into the PCEMA block. T hese nanospheres and polystyrene-bloch-PAA micelles uptake :perylene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), from water. The nanospheres o r micelles, with the sorbed perylene, are precipitated by CaCl2. These nanospheres may be useful in concentrating PAHs present in trace amou nts in water for chemical analysis or in the reclamation of water cont aminated by PAHs. Investigated in this article are factors that govern the capacities of the nanospheres and micelles, and the critical calc ium concentration for inducing nanosphere or micelle precipitation. (C ) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.