In recent years there has been a growing demand for better technolgoies to remove various pollutants in water. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with superior adsobability have been promising candidates for pollutants removal, however, poor processbility has hampered their fabrication for applications. Inspired by biomineralization, we proposed hybrid electrospun-silk-nanofiber (ESF)@MOFs (ZIF-8 or ZIF-67) membranes for efficient removal of heavy metal ions and organic pollutants in water. From scanning electronic microscopy images, we found continuous and dense ZIF-8 (ZIF-67) coated on ESF with coverage better than most reported MOF-based membranes and shell thickness of ~300 nm. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area was 562 m2 g-1 and 789 m2 g-1, as well as weight ratio of 39% and 36%, for ZIF-8 and ZIF-67, respectively. By comparing with other deposition substrates such as filter papers and cellulose acetate membranes, we found that the mechanism lies in the continuous nucleation sites provided by the ESF membranes for preliminary ZIF-8 crystals (~20 nm) attachment. For applications, ZIF-8 (ZIF-67) based membranes could adsorb 19.0 mg g-1 AsV (2.7 mg g-1 CrVI) and 20.7 mg g-1 rhodamine B (972 mg g-1 malachite green). The membrane was further used to develop a filter device for malachite green solution with a removal efficiency of 99% after single time filtration. This novel method provides a new approach to MOF-based membrane fabrication for universal water purification.

Biomimetic biomineralization-inspired hybrid electrospun-silk-nanofiber@metal-organic-framework membranes for universal water purification

254th National Meeting (2017)

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