Highly dispersed palladium nanoparticles anchored on UiO-66(NH2) metal-organic framework as a reusable and dual functional visible-light-driven photocatalyst

Proper design and preparation of high-performance and stable dual functional photocatalytic materials remains a significant objective of research. In this work, highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles of about 3-6 nm in diameter are immobilized in the metal-organic framework (MOF) UiO-66(NH2) via a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. The resulting Pd@UiO-66(NH2) nanocomposite exhibits an excellent reusable and higher visible light photocatalytic activity for reducing Cr(VI) compared with UiO-66(NH2) owing to the high dispersion of Pd nanoparticles and their close contact with the matrix, which lead to the enhanced light harvesting and more efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. More significantly, the Pd@UiO-66(NH2) could be used for simultaneous photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, like methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB), and reduction of Cr(VI) with even further enhanced activity in the binary system, which could be attributed to the synergetic effect between photocatalytic oxidation and reduction by individually consuming photogenerated holes and electrons. This work represents the first example of using the MOFs-based materials as dual functional photocatalyst to remove different categories of pollutants simultaneously. Our finding not only proves great potential for the design and application of MOFs-based materials but also might bring light to new opportunities in the development of new high-performance photocatalysts.