Zirconium-based metal organic frameworks: Highly selective adsorbents for removal of phosphate from water and urine

Phosphate is one of the most concerning compounds in wastewater streams and a main nutrient that causes eutrophication. To eliminate the phosphate pollution, Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are proposed in this study as adsorbents to remove phosphate from water. The zirconium-based MOF, UiO-66, was selected as representative MOF given its exceptional stability in water. To investigate the effect of an amine functional group, UiO-66-NH2 was also prepared using an amine-substituted ligand. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm reveal that UiO-66-NH2 exhibited higher adsorption capacities than UiO-66 possibly due to the amine group. However, the interaction between phosphate and zirconium sites of UiO MOFs might be the primary factor accounting for the phosphate adsorption to UiO MOFs. UiO MOFs also exhibited a high selectivity towards phosphate over other anions such as bromate, nitrite and nitrate. Furthermore, UiO MOFs were found to adsorb phosphate and to completely remove diluted phosphate in urine. We also found that UiO MOFs could be easily regenerated and re-used for phosphate adsorption. These findings suggest that UiO MOFs can be effective and selective adsorbents to remove phosphate from water as well as urine. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.