Precisely introducing active sites into NU-1000 through linker incorporation for degrading sulfamethoxazole under visible-light photo-Fenton process

Abstract

Combining adsorption and catalytic degradation to remove micropollutants in water has become a scientific challenge. However, the current material possessing both suitable pore size and evenly distributed active sites together is less common. Herein, we synthesized stable mesoporous metal–organic framework (MOFs) with Zr6 clusters and carboxylate linkers using solvent-assisted linker incorporation and post-synthetic metalation (NU-1000-Fe). A terpyridine-iron (II/III)-based metal–ligand was introduced into the porous channels successfully in Zr-MOFs without changing the mesoporous skeleton. The remained mesoporosity of the framework facilitated the adsorption of sulfamethylthiazole (SMX) in water (adsorption efficiency ∼ 40 %). Besides, it is verified that efficient p-n heterojunctions were successfully constructed by terpyridine-iron (II/III) and NU-1000. Results show that the accelerated charge transfer and photo-generated electron-hole separation abilities through introducing terpyridine-iron (II/III) facilitate the elimination of SMX in the process of visible-light photo-Fenton (removal efficiency > 90 %). Our findings offer a facile solvent-assisted ligand incorporation strategy for introducing additional active sites into MOFs to promote the degradation of micropollutants in water.