A new approach for ultra-high adsorption of cationic methylene blue in a Zr-sulfonic-based metal-organic framework.

A series of Zr-sulfonic-based metal-organic frameworks have been synthesized by the solvothermal method, namely VNU-17 and VNU-23. Particularly, VNU-17 and VNU-23 adopt the sulfonate group (SO ) moieties densely packed within their structure, which can efficiently uptake MB from wastewater. The maximum adsorption capacity for MB onto VNU-23 is up to 1992 mg g at pH = 7, which is more than five times that of activated carbon and possesses the highest value among all the reported MOF materials.