Adsorptive removal of dye and antibiotic from water with functionalized zirconium-based metal organic framework and graphene oxide composite nanomaterial Uio-66-(OH)2/GO

Abstract

Metal-organic framework (MOF) composite nanomaterials have attracted extensive attention in the field of environmental restoration owing to their modifiable pore size and functionalization of the framework. In this study, the novel adsorbent Uio-66-(OH)2/graphene oxide (GO) composite nanomaterial was synthesized via hydrothermal method using a functionalized zirconium-based MOFs and GO. Excellent adsorption properties of the Uio-66-(OH)2/GO were confirmed by the adsorption of two characteristic pollutants, methylene blue (MB) and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC). When the concentration of the solution was 20 mg/L, the adsorption efficiency of Uio-66-(OH)2/GO on these two pollutants reached 99.96% (MB) and 94.88% (TC), respectively. Meanwhile, MB adsorption by the Uio-66-(OH)2/GO was conducted to study the factors affecting the adsorption capacity during the adsorption process, including pH value, initial concentration and temperature of the MB solution. The isotherm had a good correlation with Freundlich isotherm model, which showed that the adsorption was monolayer adsorption and the adsorption surface was not homogenous. Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption was chemisorbed, and this also could be verified by thermodynamic analysis. The adsorption of MB by Uio-66-(OH)2/GO was completely spontaneous. These results demonstrated that the successful development of Uio-66-(OH)2/GO provides useful insights into the manufacture of MOFs-based water purification sorbents.