[en] In recent years, society has become increasingly concerned about environmental pollution. The use of dyes in various industrial areas causes significant pollution generated by the discharge of these dyes into natural waters. Most dyes are organic compounds that are very harmful to the environment and to living beings. For this reason, interest is growing in the search for effective and sustainable decontamination methods, giving way to adsorption processes. This project focuses on the elimination of methylene blue in solution by means of adsorption processes. To do so, it starts with the design and synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers for use as adsorbents. Chitin, which is a natural biopolymer, was also proposed as an adsorbent material. Once the adsorbent materials were obtained, the efficiency of the removal of the dye was studied by carrying out tests to evaluate the effect of pH on the adsorption process. In view of the results obtained, the two materials that provided the best removal were chosen and with these, different tests were carried out to analyse the time required to remove the dye using different kinetic models and the study of the adsorption equilibrium by means of adsorption isotherms. Good results were obtained for the adsorption process, since in spite of the fact that the elimination process for both materials is slow, in one of the cases 95,7% of methylene blue was eliminated after 420 minutes of reaction working at pH 9, and in the other case 90,9% of methylene blue was eliminated after 300 minutes working at pH 7, starting from solutions in which the initial concentration of methylene blue was 34 mg/L.

[gl] Nos últimos anos foi incrementando a preocupación da sociedade pola contaminación ambiental. O emprego de colorante en diversas áreas industriais ocasiona unha importante contaminación xerada pola vertedura destes a augas naturais. A maioría dos colorantes son compostos orgánicos que resultan moi daniños para o medio ambiente e os seres vivos. Por iso, crece o interese na procura de métodos de descontaminación efectivos e sostibles, dando paso aos procesos de adsorción. Este proxecto céntrase na eliminación de azul de metileno en disolución mediante procesos de adsorción. Para levalo a cabo, comézase polo deseño e a síntese de polímeros de impresión molecular para o seu uso como adsorbentes. Como material adsorbente propúxose tamén a quitina, que é un biopolímero natural. Unha vez obtidos os materiais adsorbentes, estúdase a eficacia da eliminación de dito colorante realizando ensaios para avaliar o efecto que pH no proceso de adsorción. En vista dos resultados obtidos, escolléronse os dous materiais que proporcionaron unha maior eliminación e con estes continuouse con diferentes ensaios para analizar o tempo requirido para eliminar dito colorante usando diferentes modelos cinéticos e o estudo do equilibrio de adsorción mediante isotermas de adsorción. Obtivéronse bos resultados para o proceso de adsorción, xa que a pesar de observarse que o proceso de eliminación para ambos os materiais é lento, nun dos casos conséguese eliminar un 95,7% de azul de metileno tras 420 minutos de reacción traballando a pH 9, e no outro caso de consegue eliminar un 90,9% de azul de metileno aos 300 minutos traballando a pH 7, partindo de disolucións nas cales a concentración inicial de azul de metileno era de 34 mg/L.