Comparative Study Between Two Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks as Adsorbents for Removal of Organoarsenic, As(III) and As(V) Species from Water

Abstract

Water-stable zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF) with zinc and cobalt cations were synthesized to explore the effect of metal ions on arsenic adsorption. At room temperature (25 2 ºC) and pH 7.8, maximum adsorption capacities of arsenic (As5+) on the surface of ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 were 87.03 and 86.70 mg g-1 respectively, with encouraging results up to 95% reusability of the adsorbents. The results of this study revealed that electrostatic attraction and ion exchange were the major mechanisms responsible for better efficiencies for adsorptive removal of arsenic. The evidence for the adsorption of arsenic contaminants was confirmed by FTIR analyses. The pseudo second order and Langmuir models were best suited to explain the adsorption of arsenic species on the surface of the as-synthesized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Based on the results, it was possible to conclude that the metal atoms in the synthesized MOFs had a minor impact on adsorption, since these MOFs presented identical results in the removal of arsenic species. This observation can be explained by the presence of a similar organic linker (2-methyl imidazole), which points to almost the same geometry and sponginess. However, there was a slight difference in the adamsite (organo-arsenic) removal achieved by the MOFs with different metal atoms.