Effective Adsorption and Removal of Phosphate from Aqueous Solutions and Eutrophic Water by Fe-based MOFs of MIL-101

Although many efforts have been devoted to the adsorptive removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions and eutrophic water, it is still highly desirable to develop novel adsorbents with high adsorption capacities. In this study, Fe-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), MIL-101 and NH2-MIL-101, are fabricated through a general facile strategy. Their performance as an adsorbent for phosphate removal is investigated. Experiments are performed to study the effects of various factors on the phosphate adsorption, including adsorbent dosage, contact time and co-existing ions. Both MIL-101(Fe) and NH2-MIL-101(Fe) show highly effective removal of phosphates from aqueous solutions, and the concentration of phosphates decrease sharply from the initial 0.60 mg·L-1 to 0.045 and 0.032 mg·L-1, respectively, within just 30 min of exposure. The adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms reveal that NH2-MIL-101(Fe) has higher adsorption capacity than MIL-101(Fe) possibly due to the amine group. Furthermore, the Fe-based MOFs also exhibit a high selectivity towards phosphate over other anions such as chloride, bromide, nitrate and sulfate. Particularly, the prepared Fe-based MIL-101 materials are also capable of adsorbing phosphate in an actual eutrophic water sample and display better removal effect.