Engineering Elastic ZIF-8-Sponges for Oil-Water Separation

This work reports a rapid and straightforward method to fabricate ZIF-8-melamine sponge composite with good mechanical properties, which overcomes the outstanding challenge of fabricating mechanically stable metal-organic framework (MOF)-based 3D structures. A continuous ZIF-8 thin layer is grown onto sponge skeleton by simple immersion of pristine sponge in ZIF-8 precursor solution. This method is rapid, cost-effective, easily scaled-up, and it does not require any premodification. The obtained ZIF-8 sponge shows an excellent compressive behavior and ZIF-8 thin layer remained intact after over ten cycles of compression tests. In addition, the MOF/polymer shows an outstanding absorption performance of organic solvents, good recoverability, and good recyclability, demonstrating its potential in cleaning up oil spills.