Cobalt imprinted polymer composition for selective removal of cobalt, process for preparation thereof, and process for removal of cobalt

A process for the preparation of the polymeric composition (1)

• A(x)B(y)C(z)D(f) (1)
• wherein A is any vinyl monomer containing hydroxyl group, B is any vinyl monomer bearing acidic group, C is any vinyl monomer containing an amino group and D is a cross linker bearing vinyl group and x, y, z and f are the mole fractions of A, B, C and D respectively in the final polymer and vary such that 0<x, y, z<1 and f can vary between 0 and 1 and x+y+z+f=1, said process comprising preparing a complex of monomers A, B and C bearing the functional groups, and a source of cobalt in a solvent, adding a cross linker D, porogen and a free radical initiator to this mixture, polymerizing the mixture to obtain a cobalt imprinted polymer, extracting cobalt from the cobalt imprinted polymer to obtain the final polymer composition, wherein the porogen is a higher aliphatic alcohol selected from the group consisting of dodecanol, hexanol and octanol.