Synthesis of novel 2D ZIF-8 single sheet from bulk multilayed ZIF-8 crystal, through facile mixed solutin strategy, with enhanced photocatalytic performance

Zeolitic Imidazole framework (ZIFs) have got an immense interest in many fields, due to its porous and functional structure with a tunable shape. The functional structure of ZIF-8 in 2D shape will combine both the characteristics of MOFs in 2D shape with unique properties. In this work, 2D thin Zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF-8) has been prepared in a mixed solvent of water and methanol. The precursors of ZIF-8 in mixture solvent leads to a bulk multilayered ZIF-8 structure. Then the bulk layered ZIF-8 was delaminated into single sheets through physical sonication. The ZIF-8 sheets were investigated with different characterization techniques where, the hexagonal thin sheets with thickness around 200 to 250 nm in size, shows high stability with controlled morphological shape. ZIF-8 sheets show excellent performance for MB degradation and 94.05 % of dye has been removed as compared with 3D normal ZIF-8 crystals which only removed 67.7 % of MB dye. Furthermore, the optical and electrochemical performance shows that, the 2D ZIF-8 has better electrochemical values and confirm the effective separation of photo-generated charges, compared with ZIF-8 crystals.