Facile water-stability evaluation of metal–organic frameworks and the property of selective removal of dyes from aqueous solution

Abstract

A facile and universal method was developed to evaluate the relative water stability of porous MOFs and morphological evolution was achieved by controlling the volume ratio of DMF and H₂O. The relative water stability of the studied MOFs is in the order HKUST-1 > MOF-505 ∼ UMCM-150 > NOTT-101 > DUT-23(Cu) > [Zn₂(BPnDC)₂(DABCO)] ∼ [Cu₃(TPTrC)₂(DABCO)] > MOF-5. In addition, DUT-23(Cu) [Cu₆(BTB)₄(BPY)₃] (H₃BTB = 4,4′,4′′-benzene-1,3,5-triyl-tribenzoic acid, BPY = 4,4′-bipyridine) nanoparticles obtained with a volume ratio of DMF and H₂O of 18 : 2 show excellent adsorption capacity for methylene blue (MB) (814 mg g⁻¹) with high selectivity compared with methyl orange, rhodamine B, and acid chrome blue K dyes due to the size and the electrostatic repulsion effects in aqueous solution.