Bifunctional Self-Penetrating Co(II)-Based 3D MOF for High-Performance Environmental and Energy Storage Applications

Abstract

A new metal–organic framework, [Co3(BTC)2(Bimb)3(H2O)2]n (KA@MOF-S), has been synthesized under hydrothermal conditions [H3BTC = 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid, Bimb = 1,4-bis[(1H-imidazol-1-yl)methyl]benzene] and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD), elemental analysis, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). KA@MOF-S is a self-penetrating three-dimensional (3D) framework, which shows a 3,4,4,T25 underlying topological net. The structural diversity of KA@MOF-S indicates that the bis-imidazole and polycarboxylate play important roles in tuning the dimensionality and structure of the KA@MOF-S. The solid-state luminescence, thermal stability property, recyclability, adsorption studies, and photocatalytic effectiveness for KA@MOF-S toward the degradation of organic dyes such as Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G), Crystal Violet (CV), Methyl Violet (MV), Safranin O (SO) and Neutral Red (NR) in contaminated water have also been explored in detail. Promising degradation efficiencies of about 98.32% (Rh6G), 96.54% (CV), 92.30% (MV), 92.24% (SO), and 90.30% (NR) under sunlight irradiation in 150 min are observed. KA@MOF-S shows good electrochemical characteristics, which are proven by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) analysis under an aqueous 1 M H2SO4 electrolyte. The electrochemical measurements of the as-prepared electrode material deliver a high specific capacity of 648 F g–1 at a current density of 1 A g–1. The KA@MOF-S electrode material achieves a better capacitance retention of 89.25% after 1000 cycles at 10 A g–1. KA@MOF-S is revealed as a promising novel electrode material for high-performance energy storage applications.