In-situ fabrication of nanoarchitectured MOF filter for water purification

Sulfate radical (SO₄^•-)-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOPs) hold great promise for water purification due to their strong oxidizing and high selectivity. Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as catalysts for peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation to generate SO₄^•- have shown a bright future. However, the intrinsic nature of powder MOF nanocrystals, such as brittleness and poor processability, largely disturb their large-scale applications in practical. Herein, we develop an in situ growth method to prepare MOF filters. ZIF-67 in situ growth on the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers lead to the ZIF-67/PAN composite fibers with high loading (up to 50 wt %). The loading ZIF-67 can retain their morphology and structure, which is comparable with that of pristine ZIF-67 powder. The ZIF-67/PAN filter demonstrates a high efficiency for organic pollutants removal by PMS activation. Furthermore, through the fabrication of filtration device, the dynamic catalysis results show the ZIF-67/PAN filter is a promising material for water purification. This work provides a new method for applying MOFs-based functional materials to practical water remediation and other separation applications.