Green Synthesis of H3O40PW12@MIL-100(Fe): Enhanced and Selective Adsorption of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solution

A neoteric metal-organic framework (MOF) based hybrid adsorbent, 12-tungstophosphoric acid (H3O40PW12) embedded MIL-100(Fe) (iron(III) trimesate) denoted as H3O40PW12@MIL-100(Fe), was successfully synthesized by a green strategy (low temperature (<95 degrees C) and atmospheric pressure). The structure of H3O40PW12@MIL-100(Fe) was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and N-2 adsorption. H3O40PW12@MIL100(Fe) was capable of separating cationic organic molecule methylene blue (MB) from aqueous system and proved to exhibit a higher adsorption and selectivity of MB than pure MIL-100(Fe). The adsorption was favorable at an alkaline condition and the progress obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The results identified that this green strategy was a promising strategy to produce MOF based adsorbents with excellent adsorption performance for effective removal of toxic chemicals from waste water.