Simultaneous removal of carcinogenic anionic and cationic dyes from environmental water using a new Zn-based metal–organic framework

Herein we reported a new Zn2+ metal–organic framework (MOF) (based on adipic acid as a linker and benzylimidazole as a ligand) (ABim-Zn-MOF) adsorbent material for the efficient removal of cationic (methylene blue, MB) and anionic dyes (Chicago sky blue, CSB. The newly synthesized adsorbent exhibits excellent adsorption capacity calculated to be 144.26 and 174.64 mg g−1 for CSB and MB, respectively. The kinetic model analysis indicated that the synthesized MOF followed the pseudo-second-order rate model with calculated R2 value of 0.991 and 0.993 for CSB and MB, respectively. The adsorbent also exhibited excellent application in environmental wastewater treatment with 98% recovery for the mixture of dyes in real water sample.