Ellagic Acid-Based MOFs with Synergistic Adsorption and ROS-Driven Photocatalysis for Water Purification

Ellagic acid, a naturally abundant polyphenolic compound derived from agro-industrial waste streams (e.g., fruit peels and foliage), serves as a low-cost and rigid organic ligand for constructing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with inherent eco-friendliness and well-documented bioactivities. In this work, we developed a Gram-scale synthesized, highly porous and stable anionic indium-phenolate framework (denoted YNU-007) for real-water remediation. Leveraging its anionic porous architecture and two-dimensional open channels, YNU-007 achieves more than 99.0% adsorption removal of cationic dyes via cation-exchange, yielding a record-high uptake capacity for malachite green (MG) among reported MOFs. Electron paramagnetic resonance and radical quenching experiments demonstrated that the YNU-007 generates both radical (•O₂^-) and nonradical (¹O₂) reactive oxygen species (ROS), which collectively facilitate the efficient mineralization of organic pollutants, inhibit cyanobacterial growth, and exhibit efficacy against aquatic pathogens. The investigation employs the remediation of Dian Lake pollution using a single MOF synthesized from plant-derived ellagic acid, establishing a new paradigm for the sustainable pollutant control in complex water systems.