Abstract: Hydrophobic-hydrophilic macroporous polydivinylbenzene/polyacrylethylenediamine interpenetrating polymer networks (PDVB/PAEMIPN) were prepared by the sequential suspension polymerization method. These were composed of two networks, of which one was hydrophobic (PDVB) and the other was hydrophilic (PAEM). The objective of this work was to study the adsorption thermodynamics and adsorption kinetics of this hydrophobic-hydrophilic IPN. The focus was on adsorption isotherms of vanillin at different temperatures, and these fit well into the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The isosteric adsorption enthalpy, adsorption Gibbs free energies and the adsorption entropy could be calculated according to thermodynamic functions. The hydrophobic PDVB in the PDVB/PAEM IPN resin adsorbs through hydrophobic interaction while the hydrophilic PAEM adsorbs by hydrogen bonding. The adsorption kinetic data was fitted to the Lagergren pseudo second order rate equation. Intraparticle diffusion was the rate controlling step and could be described by HSDMmodel.

Key words: Hydrophobic-hydrophilic, PDVB/PAEM IPN, Vanillin, Adsorption, Thermodynamics, Kinetics