Fine‐Tuning Porous Structure of Zirconium‐Based Metal–Organic Frameworks for Efficient Separation and Purification of Astaxanthin by Defect Engineering

Efficient separation of bioactive compounds from nature source, particularly that of astaxanthin (AXT), remains challenging due to their low content in complicated matrix and readily degradable structure. Herein, a modulator-induced defect engineering is presented on the stable zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs) to optimize pore size and pore chemistry for the efficient separation and purification of AXT for the first time. High adsorption capacity of 26.21 mg g