A Metal-Organic Framework Supported Nonprecious Metal Photocatalyst for Visible-Light-Driven Wastewater Treatment

The utilization of abundantly available elements in key technologies is a promising way to save precious and rare metals. Iron and titanium offer the highest abundance of all transition metals in the earth's crust and their application in catalytic processes is preferable regarding sustainable material development. The photocatalytic decontamination of wastewater using visible-light-responsive materials is of high interest due to the demand for clean water and the increasing accumulation of harmful organic compounds resulting from medical or industrial waste. Herein, we report a novel photocatalyst based on the generation of crystalline Fe2O3 and TiO2 on size-optimized colloidal metal-organic framework crystallites. The reusable photocatalyst permits the efficient oxidative degradation of pharmaceutical compounds and toxic dyes under visible-light illumination and without the requirement of additives or noble metals. We observed a higher photocatalytic activity for our Fe2O3/TiO2@MIL-101 material than for commercially available Fe2O3, TiO2, and TiO2 (P25).