Efficacy Assessment of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Incorporated with Starch and Macadamia Capped Silver Nanoparticles for the Removal of Multi‐Class Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater

Abstract The presence of pharmaceuticals in water bodies has been reported to be mainly due to their incomplete removal by the conventional wastewater treatment processes, resulting to their release into the aquatic environment where they thratens to human health and aquatic life. Therefore, it is important to remove these pollutants from the aquatic environment using affordable highly efficient materials. The goal of this study was to incorporate silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) into MIPs for selective removal of sulfamethoxazole, nevirapine, and ibuprofen in wastewater. The AgNPs were synthesized using starch (St) and macadamia (MCD) as both reducing and stabilizing agents. Thermogravimetric analysis showed high stability for the St/MCD‐nanoMIPs. The ANOVA analysis revealed that the parameters affecting adsorption of St/MCD‐nanoMIPs have a significant difference (p<0.05). The St/MCD‐AgNPs experimental data fitted to both Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms, however, the non‐linear Langmuir isotherm model yielded a better fit based on the higher R 2 value (0.999). The non‐linear Freundlich model best fitted for the St/MCD‐nanoMIPs. The linear pseudo‐second order model shown best fit for St/MCD‐nanoMIPs, the thermodynamic results revealed that the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic. The St/MCD‐nanoMIPs showed improved qualities and were highly selective (>70 %) and effective in removing the selected pharmaceuticals from wastewater.