Preparation of porous monoliths via CO2-in-water HIPEs template and the in situ growth of metal organic frameworks on it for multiple applications

Monolithic porous copolymers with 3D structure were prepared via CO2-in-water high internal phase emulsions template by graft copolymerization of sodium methacrylate (MAANa) on to methyl cellulose (MC) backbone. The yielded copolymer monoliths are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and mechanical instrument, the swelling degree of MC-g-PMAANa monoliths with different crosslinker in diverse pH were investigated. The adsorption performance of monolith to Cu(II) were conducted to explore its adsorption capacity to heavy metal ions from the wastewater. Then, a strategy of in situ growth of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) on MC-g-PMAANa that adsorbed with metal ions was proposed first. The X-ray powder diffraction, SEM, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area result of MC-g-PMAANa/MOFs composites indicated that the MOFs nanoparticles were grown uniformly on the monolith wall without destroying its original 3D porous structure. Compared with MOFs nanoparticle, MC-g-PMAANa/MOFs composites have advantages of easy operation and handle, which more conform to practical application. Furthermore, the antibacterial activity of MC-g-PMAANa/MOFs was evaluated by disk agar diffusion and optical density methods. In addition, MC-g-PMAANa/Cu-BTC composite was applied to dye adsorption, which has proved the underlying application of such composites in dye removal.