A vapour deposition (VD) method was established for preparation of the UiO-66-supported Fe (Fe/UiO-66) catalyst, which provided the first case of the metal-organic framework (MOF)-supported Fe catalyst prepared by using the vapour-based method. The Fe loading was around 7.0–8.5 wt% under the present preparation conditions. The crystal structure of UiO-66 was not obviously influenced by the Fe loading, while the surface area significantly decreased, implicating most of the Fe components resided in the pores on UiO-66. The results for the methyl orange (MO) removal tests showed that MO in aqueous solution can be removed by UiO-66 by adsorption, and in contrast, it can be oxidized by H 2 O 2 with the catalysis of Fe/UiO-66. Further catalytic tests showed that Fe/UiO-66 was rather effective to catalyse the oxidation of benzene derivatives like aniline in water in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency. The catalytic test results for Fe/UiO-66 were compared to those of Fe/Al 2 O 3 with the same Fe loading and to the catalysts reported in the literature. This paper provides a general strategy for VD preparation of MOF-supported Fe catalyst on the one hand, and new catalysts for removing organic pollutants from water, on the other hand.

Metal organic framework (MOF)-supported Fe catalysts belong to an important class of catalysts used for the advanced oxidation of organic pollutants in water. The successful preparation of the Fe/MIL-100­(Cr) and Fe/MIL-101­(Cr) catalysts in this work reinforced that a recently established carrier-gas free vapor deposition method can be a general one for preparing Fe/MOF catalysts. The Fe loading was in the range of 7.8–27.2 wt % on Fe/MIL-101­(Cr) at a deposition temperature of 110–150 °C, and it was only 4.35 wt % on Fe/MIL-100­(Cr) at 110 °C in comparison. The results obtained from the characterization using the N2-isotherm and EDX mapping showed that the Fe components resided uniformly within the pore of the MOF supports. Both of Fe/MIL-100­(Cr) and Fe/MIL-101­(Cr) were rather effective for the catalytic removal of aniline from water with Fenton oxidation. Fe/MIL-100­(Cr) can effectively remove the total organic carbon (TOC) of the aniline solutions, while Fe/MIL-101­(Cr) had a lower TOC removal efficiency. Both of the Fe/MIL-100­(Cr) and Fe/MIL-101­(Cr) catalysts showed good stability in the crystalline form compared to the previously prepared Fe/UiO-66 catalyst, implicating that they can be potentially more useful than Fe/UiO-66 for treating organic pollutants in water.