Facile fabrication of functionalised Zr co-ordinated MOF: Antibiotic adsorption and insightful physiochemical characterization

Excessive utilization and discharge of life-saving drugs into the aquatic environment possess a serious threat to human health as well as its surrounding ecosystem. Henceforth, their removal from the water bodies is crucial which is achieved through an economical and competent adsorption process. The surface charge plays a pivotal role in deciding the adsorption capacity of materials. In the present work, UiO-66 and UiO-66-NH2 adsorbent, environment-friendly porous functional solid Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were prepared via the hydrothermal method. The as-prepared adsorbents depict notable adsorption towards different antibiotics as model pollutants, because of their hierarchical structure which provides more adsorption sites and electrostatic interaction due to opposite surface charges as examined through pHPZC analysis. The UiO-66-NH2 exhibited the best adsorption for 20 ppm Norfloxacin, i.e., 93 % removal in 2 h at pH 5 with an excellent recycling ability and the adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model. Moreover, the adsorption strength of UiO-66-NH2 was also assessed towards Ciprofloxacin and Oxytetracycline hydrochloride pharmaceutical drugs. This study illustrates conceptual designs that guide the preparation of safe and stable adsorbents and broaden the applicability of UiO-66-based MOFs for environmental pollutant removal