Room-temperature synthesis of a Zr-UiO-66 metal-organic framework via mechanochemical pretreatment for the rapid removal of EDTA-chelated copper from water

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry 2024-08, Vol.53 (33), p.14098-14107
• Main Authors: Wu, Yi-Nan, Cai, Junyi, Hou, Shuliang, Chen, Rui, Wang, Ziqi, Kabtamu, Daniel Manaye, Zelekew, Osman Ahmed, Li, Fengting
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Ball milling; Copper; Crystal defects; Crystal structure; Diffusion rate; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acids; Heavy metals; Metal-organic frameworks; Room temperature; Synthesis; Thermal stability; Water treatment; Zirconium
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/d4dt01671h

Treatment of heavy metal pollution in complexed states within water bodies presents significant challenges in the current water treatment field. Adsorption as a means for the removal of heavy metals is characterized by its simplicity of operation, stable effluent, and minimal equipment requirements. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as adsorbents hold significant interest for applications in water treatment. In this study, we investigated a green synthesis approach for the ball-milling pretreated synthesis of UiO-66(Zr) at room temperature, abbreviated as UiO-66(Zr)-rm. Besides having the same thermal stability and crystal structure as the product from microwave-assisted synthesis (UiO-66(Zr)-mw), the resulting UiO-66(Zr)-rm features smaller particle size and superior mesoporous structure. The adsorption efficiency and mechanism for removing EDTA-chelated copper (EDTA-Cu ), a complexed heavy metal in water, were extensively analyzed. UiO-66(Zr)-rm presented a maximum adsorption capacity over EDTA-Cu of 43 mg g and a much higher adsorption rate (0.16 g (mg h) ) than UiO-66(Zr)-mw (0.06 g (mg h) ). Hierarchically mesostructured defects allow the sorbate to have more effective diffusion in a shorter time to achieve faster adsorption kinetics. Benefiting from the mild synthesis conditions and nontoxic solvents, UiO-66(Zr) has the potential to be produced at a scaled-up level, thereby exhibiting excellent adsorption performance for the removal of complexed heavy metals in the future.