Mesoporous silica functionalized with phenylamino and gluconamide groups: synthesis, characterization and use for sorption of diclofenac

Synthesis of SBA-15 mesoporous organosilicas functionalized by phenylamino and gluconamide groups is reported. The organosilicas have been synthesized by co-condensation of proper monomers in the presence of Pluronic P123, and characterized by nitrogen sorption, X-ray diffractometry, elemental analysis, and FTIR spectroscopy to get detailed information about their porous structure, ordering and presence of introduced functional groups. The obtained materials were tested as sorbents of model pharmaceutical (diclofenac) to verify a potential application for removal of pharmaceutical: the observed static sorption capacities were ~50mg/g and ~130mg/g, for phenylamino- and gluconamidefunctionalized samples, respectively, while for pristine sample no adsorption was observed.