Specific Recognition of In Situ Self-Assembly Prepared and Molecularly Imprinted Metal–Organic Frameworks in Selective Removal of Norfloxacin

Molecularly imprinted metal–organic frameworks (MIP-MOFs) were synthesized by an in situ self-assembly strategy using NH2-MIL-101 as foundational MOFs and norfloxacin as the template molecule. XRD, TG, SEM, TEM, XPS, and BET characterizations of these materials were carried out, and it was found that the introduction and elution of template molecules did not destroy the structures of the original MOFs, and the pore sizes of MIP-MOFs reached the mesoporous level. Furthermore, according to adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms, the adsorption rates of MIP-MOFs for norfloxacin increased by more than three times compared with the original MOFs, and the maximum adsorption capacity reached 684 mg·g–1. Additionally, the selective adsorption experiment showed that the MIP-MOFs had excellent selective adsorption capacities, which is mainly attributed to the specific recognition abilities of the three-dimensional imprinted holes to template molecules. This study provides a feasible strategy for the application of MOFs in high-efficiency selective adsorption and removal of macromolecules such as antibiotics.