Removal of anthracene in water by MIL-88(Fe), NH2-MIL-88(Fe), and mixed-MIL-88(Fe) metal-organic frameworks

Zakariyya Uba Zango; Khairulazhar Jumbri; Nonni Soraya Sambudi; Noor Hana Hanif Abu Bakar; Nor Ain Fathihah Abdullah; Chanbasha Basheer; Bahruddin Saad

doi:10.1039/c9ra08660a

Removal of anthracene in water by MIL-88(Fe), NH₂-MIL-88(Fe), and mixed-MIL-88(Fe) metal-organic frameworks

RSC Adv. 2019 Dec 16;9(71):41490-41501. doi: 10.1039/c9ra08660a. eCollection 2019 Dec 13.

Authors

Zakariyya Uba Zango¹, Khairulazhar Jumbri¹, Nonni Soraya Sambudi², Noor Hana Hanif Abu Bakar³, Nor Ain Fathihah Abdullah¹, Chanbasha Basheer⁴, Bahruddin Saad¹

Affiliations

¹ Fundamental and Applied Sciences Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Seri Iskandar Perak Malaysia bahruddin.saad@utp.edu.my.
² Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Seri Iskandar Perak Malaysia.
³ School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia Pulau Pinang Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Dhahran Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Three adsorbents based on the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), viz.; MIL-88(Fe), NH₂-MIL-88(Fe), and mixed-MIL-88(Fe) were synthesized using a microwave-assisted solvothermal technique. The as-synthesized MOFs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), field emission scanning microscopy (FESEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The MOFs were shown to possess highly crystalline and porous structures with specific surface areas of 1240, 941, and 1025 m² g^-1 and pore volumes of 0.7, 0.6 and 0.6 m³ g^-1 for MIL-88(Fe), NH₂-MIL-88(Fe) and mixed-MIL-88(Fe), respectively. Faster removal of a model polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, anthracene (ANT) within 25 minutes, was achieved when these MOFs were used as adsorbents in water. The removal efficiency was 98.3, 92.4 and 95.8% for MIL-88(Fe), NH₂-MIL-88(Fe) and mixed-MIL-88(Fe), respectively. The kinetics and isotherms of the process were best statistically described by pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models, respectively, while the thermodynamic studies revealed the exothermic and spontaneous nature of the process. Docking simulations were found to be consistent with the experimental results with MIL-88(Fe) showing the best binding capacity with the ANT molecule.