Adsorptive removal of organic pollutants from contaminated waters using zeolitic imidazolate framework Composites: A comprehensive and Up-to-date review

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) and their composites have emerged recently as attractive tools for several applications including wastewater decontamination. The interest in ZIF-based materials stems from their attractive structural, morphological, and multifunctional characteristics. Despite the good number of published research articles on the synthesis and utilization of ZIF-based materials for water decontamination, comprehensive reviews dedicated to the applications of ZIFs and their composites for the adsorptive removal of organic pollutants are still greatly lacking. Therefore, the key aim of the current article is to comprehensively review recent studies (mostly published in the past five years) on the adsorptive removal of organic pollutants from wastewater using ZIF-based materials. Synthesis approaches of ZIFs and their composites are reviewed first in order to provide insights into the progress in the synthetic protocols. Then, the adsorption performance of ZIF-based materials towards organic pollutants, their adsorption isotherms and kinetics, the effects of process parameters, and adsorption mechanisms are critically and thoroughly analyzed. Remaining knowledge gaps, limitations, and obstacles are highlighted and future work to tackle them has been proposed. Accordingly, this article provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the different aspects of the application of ZIF-based materials for the adsorptive removal of organic pollutants from wastewater.