In-situ fabrication of ZIF-8 decorated layered double oxides for adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

Combining metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with a variety of functional materials have received considerable attention recently due to their enhanced performances and widespread applications. In this work, ZIF-8/Zn-Al Layered double oxides (LDO) composite was synthesized via in-situ growth method without adding any zinc source. Hierarchical porous structure was formed by the growth of ZIF-8 onto LDO surface, and the resulted composite exhibited high adsorption capacity and good photocatalytic degradation activity for methylene blue (MB). More than 58% of the initial concentration of MB could be adsorbed and degraded within 180 min of UV irradiation, which was significant higher than that of ZIF-8 and LDO, suggesting a synergy of adsorption and photocatalysis between ZIF-8 and LDO. Moreover, ZIF-8/LDO could be easily regenerated and reused at least 4 times without loss of its degradation ability.