Amine-functionalized zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks and their potential applications in adsorption and separation: A review

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) refer to porous materials which have received excessive interest due to their unique structural diversity thus helping them maintain high surface area and porosity. Zirconium-based MOFs (UiO-66) can be easily modified with various functional groups, allowing control over how strongly an analyte binds to the MOF. Amine-functionalized UiO-66 MOFs (UiO-66-NH 2 ) offers higher surface areas and exceptional porosity with potentially enhanced activity compared to traditionally used materials such as base metal oxides and offer shape/size selectivity, which attracts many applications such as gas storage, gas purification and separation, wastewater treatment. In recent studies, UiO-66-NH 2 has been incorporated with nanomaterials such as graphene oxide (GO) (UiO-66-NH 2 /GO) to improve its properties for adsorption applications. In this review, we present the synthetic methods, characteristic properties, and adsorption/separation applications of amine-functionalized zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks as well as incorporation of these MOFs in polymeric membranes. Lastly, challenges and future perspectives of UiO-66-NH 2 /GO MOFs are discussed.