Sulfur Fluoride Exchange Enabled Polysufate Adsorbents: Flexible Group Embedded in Polymer Backbone Regulation Strategy for Organic Solvent Removal from Water

Removal of organic solvents (such as chloroform, toluene, etc.) in trace amounts using adsorbents from water is a challenge due to their low removal efficiencies and poor selectivities. Herein, four polysulfates (P1-P4) with different flexible group embedded backbones were synthesized via a sulfur fluoride exchange (SuFEx) reaction, and their swelling behaviors in organic solvents were investigated. P1 with a flexible ethyl group on its backbone can selectively swell in aprotic organic solvents with medium and high polarities about 30-fold its original weight, which is much higher than that of P4 with rigid benzene on its backbone. Moreover, molecular dynamic (MD) simulation results showed that the swelling mechanism could be put down to the electrostatic and van der Waals forces between the polysulfates and organic solvents. Surprisingly, the polysulfates can be used to remove chloroform and toluene from water with removal efficiencies of up to 99.26 and 99.42%, respectively. Furthermore, the polysulfates also exhibited high selectivities and anti-interference performances toward chloroform in the presence of other pollutants and different acid/base environments. Our work provides a strategy to construct adsorbents with high efficiencies for removal of low concentrations of organic solvents from water.