Green aluminum metal-organic frameworks (Al-MOFs) supported on commercial activated carbon for enhanced removal performances of industrial fluoride pollutants

Abstract

In the present work, environmentally benign porous aluminum-based metal-organic frameworks (Al-MOFs) were synthesized and explored for the removal of fluoride. Contrarily, activated carbon (AC) is frequently employed in the water treatment process. However, AC's ability to remove fluoride through adsorption is quite limited. As a result, for the first time in order to enhance the fluoride removal capability of AC, Al-MOF modified on the surface of commercial AC to obtain novel Al-MOF-AC. Overall, adopting AC could lower the stability, recovery, cost concern of MOFs and improving AC's removal capabilities. Substantially, using various parameters Al-MOF and Al-MOF-AC demonstrated excellent rapid >99 % fluoride removal efficiency. To prove the capability of Al-MOF and Al-MOF-AC in real-time application, Semiconductor industrial wastewater (SIDW) sample utilized for further adsorption analysis and proved with exceptional removal efficiency. Furthermore, using the isotherm model Al-MOF was validated with a better adsorption capacity of 37.20 mg/g. It is noteworthy to mention that Al-MOF-AC demonstrated with enhanced adsorption capacity of 33.68 mg/g indicating the effective role of surface modification of Al-MOF on the AC surface. Interestingly, both the adsorbents Al-MOF and Al-MOF-AC presented excellent fluoride removal efficiencies in the presence of other co-existing anions and better recycling performances up to five cycles.