Metal Organic Frameworks for Removal of Heavy Metal Cations and Emerging Organic Pollutants

Abstract

The toxicity of wastewater generated from industrial plants is one of the serious environmental issues. The wastewater often contains toxic compounds such as inorganic pollutants (e.g. oxyanions/cations and heavy metal ions) and organic pollutants (e.g. organic dyes, phenols, biphenyls, pesticides, fertilizers, hydrocarbons, plasticizers, detergents, oils, greases, pharmaceuticals, proteins, carbohydrates etc.) which cause severe environmental and health problems. Many organic pollutants are chemically stable and they are not very prone to biodegradable. Hence, their removal from wastewater only by biological processes is challenging. Many physical, chemical and biological techniques have been developed for wastewater treatment and physical adsorption method has been considered the most effective. Thus materials with adsorption properties have gained wide attention in the scientific community. In recent years, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been employed in technologies to bring an inspiring breakthrough for wastewater treatment. The MOF is class of materials with the exceptionally high surface areas and larger porosity, easier in pore structure designing, and structural modifications. This chapter aims to give insight into the latest developments onto the use of MOFs in the removal of inorganic and emerging organic contaminants present in the wastewater. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.