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Magnetic porous carbon composites are promising materials in various applications, such as adsorbents, supercapacitors and catalyst supports, due to their high surface area, thermal and chemical stability, and easy separation. However, despite the increasing number of reports of magnetic porous carbon composites, the preparation of these materials with environmentally friendly procedures still remains a great challenge. Herein, we report a facile method to prepare a magnetic porous carbon composite with high surface area from a Fe-based metal–organic gel (MOG) template, an extended structure of a metal–organic framework (MOF). The obtained magnetic porous carbon composite was applied to remove organic dyes from an aqueous solution by selecting methyl orange (MO) as a model molecule. It exhibits excellent adsorption capacity (182.82 mg g−1), fast adsorption kinetics (8.13 × 10−3 g mg−1 min−1), and a perfect magnetic separation performance for the MO removal. This study demonstrates a new way to achieve clean synthesis of magnetic porous carbon materials, and opens a new door for the application of MOGs in organic dye removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water pollution originating from organic dyes is endangering the survival and development of society; however, adsorbents with high capacity (>5000 mg g−1) for the fast removal (≤30 min) of Congo Red (CR) in aqueous solution have been not reported to date. In the present work, an acid–base stably layered MOF, [Cd(H2L)(BS)2]n·2nH2O (L-MOF-1, H2L = N1,N2-bis(pyridin-3-ylmethyl)ethane-1,2-diamine, BS = benzenesulfonate), was hydrothermally prepared. L-MOF-1 exhibited high-performance adsorption of CR in aqueous solution at room temperature. The experimental adsorption capacity of the L-MOF-1 adsorbent towards CR reached up to about 12 000 mg g−1 in 20 min in the pH range of 2.2–4.7, which is the best adsorbent with the highest capacity and fastest adsorption of CR to date. The spontaneous adsorption process can be described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models. Meanwhile, the L-MOF-1 absorbent possessed a highly positive zeta potential in acid condition (even at pH = 2.2, zeta potential = 36.2 mV). Its good adsorption performance mainly originates from its strong electrostatic attraction with CR in acidic condition, together with diverse hydrogen bonds and π⋯π stacking interactions. Furthermore, the L-MOF-1 absorbent exhibited good selectivity and could be reused five times through simply washing, where its adsorption efficiency was hardly affected. Therefore, L-MOF-1 is a potential absorbent for effectively removing CR from dye wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nano-scale MOF composite materials prepared by combining inorganic semiconductors with controllable pore structures and functional active sites for the effective removal of organic dyes will exhibit more excellent adsorption activity. In this paper, MIL-101(Cr) was used as a carrier and two-step hydrothermal methods were successfully used to prepare flower-like TiO2/MIL-101(Cr) composite nano-adsorbents with different sizes. The results of XRD, SEM, XPS and other characterization methods showed that when the molar ratio of Ti : Cr was 0.2 : 1, the composite nano-adsorbent exhibited better adsorption performance and removal efficiency for methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution. By assembling TiO2 on MIL-101(Cr), Ti replaced part of Cr, and the positively-charged TiO2/MIL-101(Cr) nanocomposite and negatively-charged MO in aqueous solution formed a strong interaction force. In addition, the π–π packing interactions of the benzene ring of MIL-101(Cr) and the electrostatic force between TiO2 and MIL-101(Cr) also enhanced the performance and adsorption efficiency of the adsorbent to a certain extent. The BET results showed that the large specific surface area and average pore diameter of the TiO2/MIL-101(Cr) nanocomposites effectively improved the adsorption performance of the composites. The results showed that the MO removal efficiency of 20% TiO2/MIL-101(Cr) can reach 93.03% at 80 min. But when 20% TiO2/MIL-101(Cr) was used to adsorb 70 mg·L−1 MO, the experimental maximum adsorption capacity was 242.02 mg·g−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the surface affinity of MOFs and separation advantages of polymer membranes, herein, a one-step interface synthesis strategy is used in the construction of Cu-BTC/PVDF hybrid membranes, in which Cu2+ ions and 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H3BTC) were dissolved in ionized water and n-octanol separately, and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films were laid at the interface of two immiscible solvents. As a result, Cu-BTC was generated and readily self-assembled inside the PVDF films. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method were used to characterize Cu-BTC/PVDF hybrid membranes, and Congo red (CR) was selected as the target dye to evaluate the surface adsorption activity of the hybrid membranes. Batch adsorption tests under various conditions were conducted to optimize the adsorption capacity, adsorption kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics, which were analyzed to further explore the adsorption behavior. Based on this, the adsorption mechanism was discussed. It is worth noting that because of the π–π stacking interaction and hydrogen bonding, an extraordinary adsorption capacity of CR was achieved, and the good separation advantage and the cyclic adsorption performances endow the resulting Cu-BTC/PVDF hybrid membranes with promising applications in the removal of organic dyes from practical wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and development of an environmentally benign porous adsorbent for effective simultaneous adsorption of organic dyes and heavy metals from water are important but remain a big challenge. Herein, we have designed a layered double hydroxide/metal–organic framework-based hierarchical nanocomposite (LDH/MOF HNC) by a facile, room-temperature in situ approach. This paper for the first time reports a hierarchical trimodal micro-meso-macroporous LDH/MOF composite with a high surface area (surface area 1282 m2 g−1 and pore volume 0.93 cm3 g−1), synthesised by uniformly growing MOF nanocrystals on the surface of LDH nanosheet ultrathin films. An attempt is made to quantitatively demonstrate the adsorption data via suitable nonlinear kinetic and isotherm equations for single, simultaneous, and consecutive adsorption of the orange II reactive dye and Cr(VI). Experiments were performed at various values of pH (6.0–11.0), adsorbent dosages (1.0–8.0 mg), adsorbate concentrations (5–500 mg L−1), and temperatures (293–323 K). The Langmuir model revealed a satisfactory fit to the equilibrium data of the LDH/MOF HNC (correlation coefficients R2 > 0.98) with a calculated maximum adsorption capacity of 1173 and 733 mg g−1 for orange II and Cr(VI), respectively, in a simultaneous adsorption system. The results of the study demonstrated that LDH/MOF HNCs could potentially be applied as a promising nanoadsorbent for the simultaneous removal and extraction of toxic dyes and metals from water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]