Macroporous Cu-MOF@cellulose acetate membrane serviceable in selective removal of dimethoate pesticide from wastewater

The current study focused on adsorption of dimethoate by using highly adsorptive porous membrane based on metal organic framework@cellulose acetate (Cu-BTC@CA). The porous Cu-BTC@CA membrane was prepared in two steps; formation of porous CA membrane and secondly, Cu-BTC was in-situ synthesized within the porous CA membrane. The preparation was performed to incorporate different ratios of Cu-BTC (20–60%) within the CA membrane to study their efficiency in the adsorption of dimethoate. Micro-crystals Cu-BTC was successfully immobilized in the macroporous CA membrane with pore diameter of 112.6–496.0 nm. The BET surface area was significantly increased from 78.4 m2/g for CA membrane to 965.8 m2/g for 40% Cu-BTC@CA membrane. Adsorption of dimethoate upon the synthesized membrane was fitted well to Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order model. The adsorption capacity was observably enhanced from 207.8 mg/g for CA membrane to 282.3–321.9 mg/g for Cu-BTC@CA membrane. Incorporation of 40% Cu-BTC resulted in acceleration of the dimethoate adsorption by factor of 2.1. The applied membrane showed quite good recyclability and the adsorption efficiency was reduced by 22.5% after 5 recycles. The synthesized Cu-BTC@CA membrane could be promisingly applied in the effective removal of pesticides with sufficient recoverability, and in general environmental purposes.