Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 J Incl Phenom Macrocycl Chem DOI 10.1007/s10847-017-0708-6 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Cyclodextrin-based polymeric materials for the specifc recovery of polyphenolic compounds through supramolecular host–guest interactions Mohamed El Idrissi 1  · Aurora E. Molina Bacca 1,2  · Dario Frascari 2  · Philippe F. -X. Corvini 1,3  · Patrick Shahgaldian 1   Received: 9 December 2016 / Accepted: 4 March 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 chromatography-mass spectroscopy analyses that efcient removal of phenolic compounds from OMW could be achieved but also that two compounds, namely tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol, could be selectively extracted from OMW. Keywords Cyclodextrin · Polymer · Phenolic compounds · Adsorbent · Olive oil mill wastewater · Selectivity Introduction Since the early days of supramolecular sciences, chemists have devoted great eforts to design molecular receptors capable of specifc recognition of a wide variety of targets ranging from small inorganic ions to large biomolecules [1]. These molecular receptors have been widely used to produce (nano)-materials with selective molecular recogni- tion properties [2]. These materials have been extensively studied for biomedical purposes, and to a lower extent for environmental applications. Supramolecular materials, because of their efcient molecular recognition properties may fnd a wealth of new applications for the selective removal of harmful or valu- able targets from industrial waste streams. One example of interest is the extraction of phenolic compounds from olive oil mill wastewater (OMW). Indeed, the large amount of OMW produced by the olive oil industry (more than 30 million m 3 /year) is a major environmental problem, as several organic components of this waste stream are known to possess phytotoxic activities [3]. However, some of these compounds are also valuable molecules (e.g. phenolic com- pounds) for diferent types of applications (e.g. food, cos- metic formulation or therapeutic application). Abstract While the specifc recovery of valuable chemi- cals from waste streams represents an environmentally- friendly and potentially economically-relevant alternative to synthetic chemical productions, it remains a largely unmet challenge. This is partially explained by the com- plexity of designing sorption materials able to target one specifc compound and able to function in complex matri- ces. In this work, a series of cyclodextrin-based polymers (CDPs) were designed to selectively extract phenolic com- pounds from a complex organic matrix that is olive oil mill wastewater (OMW). In order to endow these polymers with selective adsorption properties, several monomers and cross-linkers were screened and selected. The adsorp- tion properties of the CDPs produced were frst tested with selected phenolic compounds commonly found in OMW, namely syringic acid, p-coumaric acid, tyrosol and cafeic acid. The selected CDPs were subsequently tested for their ability to adsorb phenolic compounds directly from OMW, which is known to possess a high and complex organic con- tent. It was demonstrated through high-performance liquid Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10847-017-0708-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Patrick Shahgaldian patrick.shahgaldian@fhnw.ch 1 Institute of Chemistry and Bioanalytics, School of Life Science, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Muttenz, Switzerland 2 Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Via Terracini 28, 40131 Bologna, Italy 3 Institute for Ecopreneurship, School of Life Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Gründenstrasse 40, 4132 Muttenz, Switzerland