A rational screening of cyclodextrin-based polymer (CDP), in terms of the relationship between adsorption potential and adsorbent-adsorbate, was investigated to adsorb and separate pesticides from water. Seven spherical porous CDPs were prepared with onefold or composite cyclodextrin(s) as complex and epichlorohydrin as cross-linking reagent. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms of the polymers toward a mixture of ten distinct pesticides clearly demonstrate that the adsorbents with a homogeneous open network structure can absorb pesticides via multiple adsorption interactions such as CD inclusion, loading into swelling water and physical adsorption on network. The multivariate regression analysis distinguishes the quantitative contributions of polymer properties to its adsorption potential, among which CD content, swelling capacity and pore size appear to be major influencing factors. Consequently, a facile mixture of three CDPs (i.e., β-CDP, RM-CDP and HP-CDP) was screened to obtain above prerequisite properties. The multiplex polymer could superiorly separate the pesticides at environmentally relevant levels from water.

Co-contamination of ligand-like antibiotics (e.g., tetracyclines and quinolones) and heavy metals prevails in the environment, and thus the complexation between them is involved in environmental risks of antibiotics. To understand toxicological significance of the complex, effects of metal coordination on antibiotics’ toxicity were investigated. The complexation of two antibiotics, oxytetracycline and ciprofloxacin, with three heavy metals, copper, zinc, and cadmium, was verified by spectroscopic techniques. The antibiotics bound metals via multiple coordination sites and rendered a mixture of various complexation speciations. Toxicity analysis indicated that metal coordination did modify the toxicity of the antibiotics and that antibiotic, metal, and their complex acted primarily as concentration addition. Comparison of EC50 values revealed that the complex commonly was highest toxic and predominately correlated in toxicity to the mixture. Finally, environmental scenario analysis demonstrated that ignoring complexation would improperly classify environmental risks of the antibiotics.