Applications of Metal Organic Frameworks in Wastewater Treatment: A Review on Adsorption and Photodegradation

Abstract

The growing accumulation of emerging contaminants in the environment can cause direct and indirect water pollution that puts human lives at risk. The fact that these contaminants are not or cannot be eliminated from the municipal water utilities, poses a significant concern. Researchers are currently pulling massive attention to improve existing technologies, develop new strategies, and provide environmentally durable solutions to mitigate water contamination problems. Adsorption and photodegradation are two of the most sustainable technologies that are used in water purification. These technologies have many advantages because of the economic, simple, and easily operated designs needed to treat wastewater. Within these applications, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are playing a significant role as novel class of porous materials characterized by a crystalline structure. MOFs are considered good candidates to be employed in wastewater treatment technologies because of the tunability of their features. The scope of this review article is to provide a comprehensive description of the recent studies published in the literature about the adsorptive and photocatalytic use of MOFs for the removal of organic emerging contaminants from wastewater. Furthermore, this study briefly highlights the synthesis technologies of MOFs. Finally, future perspective and challenges associated with MOF large-scale production are discussed.

Removal of emerging contaminants from wastewater using advanced treatments. A review

“…In recent years, metal-organic frameworks have attracted attention as promising materials for the removal of emerging contaminants in effluents by adsorption-oriented, catalytic degradation and/or membrane processes (Dias and Petit 2015;de Andrade et al 2018;Mon et al 2018;Bedia et al 2019;Li et al 2019Li et al , 2020bDhaka et al 2019;Rojas and Horcajada 2020;Russo et al 2020;Zango et al 2020). Metal-organic frameworks are a kind of crystalline materials with permanent porosity, more than 50% of their crystal volume, formed by the self-assembly of metal ions or their aggregates/clusters linked together by multifunctional organic ligands.…”

Emerging MXene@Metal–Organic Framework Hybrids: Design Strategies toward Versatile Applications

“…The ultrahigh surface area characteristic (maximum value up to ∼10,000 m 2 g –1 ) projects them as attractive porous candidate materials when compared to porous carbons and zeolites . The features of MOFs facilitate them to be employed in various applications such as catalysis, , gas storage and separation, , sensors, , and drug delivery. , and water treatment. , However, MOFs are challenged by the issues associated with the limited chemical stability, poor electrical conductivity, and inaccessible intricate pores . Hybridization of MOFs with various guest molecules such as quantum dots, metallic nanoparticles (NPs), graphene, clay, and layered materials may be beneficial if the host structure provides appropriate interactions for stabilizing and improving the desired properties .…”

Nine days extended release of adenosine from biocompatible MOFs under biologically relevant conditions

“…4,5 This report describes, for the first time, the utilization of the microporous, hybrid metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), for adenosine delivery, with an outstanding nine day release profile. MOFs are constructed from a large variety of metal ions and organic linkers, with a wide range of applications ranging from gas storage and separation, 6 catalysis, 7 and water treatment 8,9 to drug delivery [10][11][12][13] and tissue engineering. 14,15 The key to this wide range of applications of MOFs is their intrinsic microporosity and hybrid composition, allowing for uptake and release of guest compounds with demonstrated high capacity and, in many cases, selectivity.…”