Zirconium Metal–Organic Frameworks for Organic Pollutant Adsorption

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of porous, crystalline materials that have been explored as sorbents to extract organic pollutants, such as agrochemicals, dyes, and pharmaceuticals, from water. By capitalizing on the modular nature of MOFs, chemical functionality can be precisely tuned allowing the systematic investigation of favorable interactions. On deciphering structure–property relationships regarding the adsorption of organic pollutants in MOFs, design rules will guide the rational preparation of next-generation sorbents. Mild and nonconventional routes of MOF synthesis reduce energy demands and solvent use. Implementation of MOF technology is being propelled by efforts to understand and improve MOF processability. The rapid expansion of manufacturing and the industrialization of agriculture during the 20th century pervaded surface and groundwater sources with organic contaminants including agrochemicals, dyes, and pharmaceuticals. Efficient purification of these water sources is critical to safeguard human health and Earth’s ecosystems. Of the numerous strategies investigated for water purification, adsorption has received the most attention; however, the ability to design a sorbent with high uptake capacity and selectivity for a single pollutant continues to elude researchers. The precise synthetic control over chemical functionality offered by metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) make them ideal scaffolds for the systematic investigation of selectivity-enhancing binding interactions. Herein, we review the recent reports on the use of water-stable zirconium-based MOFs (Zr-MOFs) to extract organic pollutants from water and briefly discuss the field’s future directions. The rapid expansion of manufacturing and the industrialization of agriculture during the 20th century pervaded surface and groundwater sources with organic contaminants including agrochemicals, dyes, and pharmaceuticals. Efficient purification of these water sources is critical to safeguard human health and Earth’s ecosystems. Of the numerous strategies investigated for water purification, adsorption has received the most attention; however, the ability to design a sorbent with high uptake capacity and selectivity for a single pollutant continues to elude researchers. The precise synthetic control over chemical functionality offered by metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) make them ideal scaffolds for the systematic investigation of selectivity-enhancing binding interactions. Herein, we review the recent reports on the use of water-stable zirconium-based MOFs (Zr-MOFs) to extract organic pollutants from water and briefly discuss the field’s future directions. a noncovalent, attractive interaction between molecular systems possessing pi bonds. Typically, this type of interaction is observed between the pi bonds of multiple aromatic species. a favorable adsorptive process in which the Gibbs free energy term is dominated by a large negative enthalpic term (i.e., substantial heat is given off during the adsorption). a favorable adsorptive process in which the Gibbs free energy term is dominated by a large positive entropy change, which results if the entropy gain due to the release of solvent molecules coordinating to sorbent surface outweighs the entropy penalty due to binding of adsorbate to sorbent. a nondestructive technique used to determine information about the molecular structure of crystalline materials. This method provides atomically precise details such as atomic positions, the dimensions of the unit cell, and bond lengths and angles.