Adsorption behavior of arsenicals on MIL-101(Fe): The role of arsenic chemical structures

Arsenic species are regarded as typical water pollutants due to their toxicity. The chemical structures of arsenic species greatly influence their migration and transformation in the environment. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are used as reliable adsorbents to control arsenic contamination, so it is urgently needed to study the effect of chemical structure of arsenic species during adsorption process. The adsorption behaviors of arsenate (As(V)) and its organic forms such as roxarsone (ROX), p-arsanilic acid (p-ASA) and dimethyl arsenate (DMA) by MIL-101(Fe), a type of highly porosity iron-based MOFs in aqueous environment were detailed investigated. The adsorption kinetics of those arsenic species on MIL-101(Fe) is rapid followed with pseudo-second-order kinetic model. MIL-101(Fe) exhibits excellent adsorption capacities for As(V), ROX, p-ASA and DMA with maximum adsorption capacities of 232.98, 507.97, 379.65 and 158.94 mg g-1, respectively. The formed FeOAs inner-sphere coordination between arsenic species and the incomplete-coordinated cationic Fe in the MIL-101(Fe) cluster is the primary adsorption mechanism based on FTIR and XPS analysis. Substituent aromatic units in ROX and p-ASA strengthen the adsorption on MIL-101(Fe) through hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking interaction, resulting in higher adsorption capacities far beyond that of As(V) and DMA. The reusability of MIL-101(Fe) is limited by the strong FeOAs coordination. These results confirm MIL-101(Fe) a reliable adsorbent to control the aqueous arsenic species contamination and emphasize the significant role of the chemical structure of arsenic speciation on adsorption performances of MOFs.