Lanthanide metal-organic frameworks as selective microporous materials for adsorption of heavy metal ions

Four microporous lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), namely Ln(BTC)(H2O)(DMF)1.1 (Ln = Tb, Dy, Er and Yb, DMF = dimethylformamide, H3BTC = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid), have been used for selective adsorption of Pb(ii) and Cu(ii). Among these MOFs, the Dy-based MOF shows better adsorption property and selectivity toward Pb(ii) and Cu(ii) ions. Adsorption isotherms indicate that sorption of Pb(ii) and Cu(ii) on MOFs is via monolayer coverage. Preconcentration is based on solid-phase extraction in which MOFs were rapidly injected into water samples and adsorption of metal ions was rapid because of good contact with analyte; then adsorbed Pb(ii) and Cu(ii) ions were analyzed by FAAS. The optimized methodology represents good linearity between 1 and 120 μg L(-1) and detection limit of 0.4 and 0.26 μg L(-1) for Pb(ii) and Cu(ii), respectively. Subsequently the method was evaluated for preconcentration of target metal ions in some environmental water samples.