The Solid Phase Extraction of Phenol and Chlorophenols by the Chemically Modified Polymeric Adsorbents with Porphyrins

The commercially available Amberlite XAD-2 and XAD-4 resins were modified with macrocyclic protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) or tetrakis(p-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP) to enhance the adsorption capacity for phenol and chlorophenols. The chemically modified polymeric adsorbents (XAD-2+PPIX, XAD-2+TCPP, XAD-4+PPIX, and XAD-4+TCPP) were applied to the solid phase extraction as an adsorbent material for the preconcentration of phenol and chlorophenols in environmental waters. Generally, the synthesized adsorbents showed higher recoveries than underivatized adsorbents, XAD-2 and XAD-4, without matrix interferences. Especially, XAD-4+PPIX showed more than 90% recoveries for all compounds used in this study including hydrophilic phenol. The major factor for the increase of the adsorption capacity was the increase of $\pi$-$\pi$ interaction between adsorbents and samples due to the introduction of the porphyrin molecule. However, the breakthrough volumes and recovery values of the XADs+TCPP columns were slightly decreased for the bulky chlorophenols such as TCP and PCP. Using molecular mechanics methods, the structures of TCPP and PPIX were compared with that of porphine, the parent molecule of porphyrin. Four bulky p-carboxyphenyl groups of TCPP were torsional each other, thus the molecular plane of TCPP were not on the same level. In conclusion, the decrease of breakthrough volumes and recovery values of XADs+TCPP columns for bulky phenols can be explained by the steric hindrance of the $\pi$-$\pi$ interaction between porphyrin plane and the phenols.