The adsorptive removal of tetracycline (TC), one of the most frequently detected pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), was studied for the first time with two types of Zr-MOFs, UiO-66 and MOF-525. Both MOFs exhibited rapid adsorption rate and ultrahigh adsorption capacities. The adsorption kinetics best fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the adsorption equilibrium was rapidly reached within 30 min on UiO-66 and 120 min on MOF-525, respectively. The faster adsorption kinetics is significant as the pore size of UiO-66 is smaller than that of MOF-525. The maximum Langmuir adsorption capacities of tetracycline on UiO-66 and MOF-525 were 106 mg/g and 601 mg/g at 298 K respectively, which were much higher than common adsorbents such as activated carbon, resin and graphene oxide. The adsorption capacity of TC on MOF-525 was approximately five times higher than that on UiO-66, which can be explained by the double suface area of MOF-525 compared to UiO-66. In addition, the adsorption capacity of TC on MOF-525 decreased with the increase of solution pH. However, the solution pH and inoic strength did not have significant effect on the adsorption of TC on UiO-66. The different influence of pH and ionic strenth suggested that the π-π electron donor-acceptor interaction played a crucial role during the adsorption on UiO-66, while both electrostatic interaction and π-π electron donor-acceptor interaction existed during the adsorption on MOF-525. River water was also used to confirm the excellent adsorptive performance of these two Zr-MOFs in practical application. These results might aid us to comprehend the adsorption of tetracycline on Zr-MOFs and expand the application of Zr-MOFs in water treatment for removal of emerging contaminants.

Adsorptive removal of aqueous tetracycline by Zr-based metal-organic frameworks

256th National Meeting (2018)

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