Highly Selective Tetracycline Capture via Synergistic Noncovalent Interactions With an Imine‐Based Porous Organic Polymer

ABSTRACT

Pharmaceutical contaminants in water typically occur as complex mixtures, making the selective removal of specific antibiotics a critical yet underexplored challenge. In this study, a melamine‐based porous organic polymer (MaTpA‐POP) was designed to capture tetracycline in the presence of structurally diverse pharmaceutical pollutants. Competitive adsorption experiments reveal a pronounced selectivity for tetracycline over common coexisting compounds, including bisphenol A, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and diclofenac, with minimal uptake of competing species. Spectroscopic, thermodynamic, and adsorption analyses demonstrate that this selectivity mainly arises from the cooperative interplay of electrostatic interactions and the molecular size of tetracycline. Although MaTpA‐POP achieves a Langmuir adsorption capacity of 114.81 mg g ⁻¹ , its defining attribute is the interaction‐driven selectivity that effectively suppresses the interference from competing pharmaceuticals. These findings establish that the noncovalent interactions within porous organic polymers can enable highly selective recognition of tetracycline and related antibiotics, offering a cost‐effective and mechanistically grounded strategy for the targeted remediation of antibiotics in complex water matrices.