Adsorption removal of sulfamethoxazole from water using UiO-66 and UiO-66-BC composites

The adsorption removal of anti-inflammatory drugs from water by diverse materials has drawn great attention. This study investigated the adsorption of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) by two types of materials, UiO-66 and UiO-66-BC composites. Highly porous MOF composites with functional groups were synthesized by combining UiO-66 with corncob-based biochar at different molar ratios. SEM results showed that macroporosity of UiO-66-BC composites was increased by increasing the ratio of biochar. It was found that UiO-66-BC composites displayed highly improved adsorption performance of SMX relative to pristine UiO-66. UiO-66-BC (5%) had the highest SMX adsorption capacity, about 2.4 times those of pristine UiO-66. It was the high surface area of UiO-66 and redundant functional groups of biochar that increased the adsorption performance of composites. Moreover, UiO-66-BC can be reused and displayed the competitive adsorption efficiency after successive adsorption, which made it a potential adsorbent for the removal of SMX from water. (C) 2021 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study successfully synthesized highly porous MOF composites UiO-66-BC with functional groups by combining UiO-66 with corncob-based biochar, and found that the composites exhibited higher adsorption performance for the anti-inflammatory drug sulfamethoxazole (SMX) compared to pristine UiO-66.