Polyoxometalate s /polymer composites for the photodegradation of bisphenol‐A

A review of metal-organic framework (MOF) materials as an effective photocatalyst for degradation of organic pollutants

Water plays a vital role in all aspects of life. Recently, water pollution has increased exponentially due to various organic and inorganic pollutants. Organic pollutants are hard to degrade; therefore, cost-effective and sustainable approaches are needed to degrade these pollutants. Organic dyes are the major source of organic pollutants from coloring industries. The photoactive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) offer an ultimate strategy for constructing photocatalysts to degrade pollutants present in wastewater. Therefore, tuning the metal ions/clusters and organic ligands for the better photocatalytic activity of MOFs is a tremendous approach for wastewater treatment. This review comprehensively reports various MOFs and their composites, especially POM-based MOF composites, for the enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in the aqueous phase. A brief discussion on various theoretical aspects such as density functional theory (DFT) and machine learning (ML) related to MOF and MOF composite-based photocatalysts has been presented. Thus, this article may eventually pave the way for applying different structural features to modulate novel porous materials for enhanced photodegradation properties toward organic pollutants.

Thermal and bisphenol-A adsorption properties of a zinc ferrite/β-cyclodextrin polymer nanocomposite

The present study investigated the use of a nanocomposite, produced by reinforcing nanosize zinc ferrite (ZnFe₂O₄) in a porous β-CD based polymeric matrix (β-CD-E-T/ZnFe₂O₄), for the removal of Bisphenol A (BPA) from aqueous solutions via adsorption. The thermal stability of the β-CD-based polymer and β-CD-E-T/ZnFe₂O₄ nanocomposite were investigated using simultaneous thermal analysis at four heating rates. Non-isothermal isoconversion methods were employed to study the thermal degradation kinetics of the β-CD based polymer before and after ZnFe₂O₄ nano-filling. The results showed that ZnFe₂O₄ nano-reinforcement increased the activation energy barrier for the thermal degradation of the β-CD-based polymeric matrix. Adsorption experiments showed that the β-CD-E-T/ZnFe₂O₄ nanocomposite exhibited very high BPA adsorption within 5 minutes. Isotherm, kinetics, and thermodynamic investigations revealed that the adsorption of BPA was via multilayer adsorption on a heterogeneous β-CD-E-T/ZnFe₂O₄ surface. The thermodynamic studies indicated that BPA adsorption on β-CD-E-T/ZnFe₂O₄ was spontaneous and exothermic. Overall, the β-CD-E-T/ZnFe₂O₄ nanocomposite showed less thermal degradation and high efficiency for removing BPA from contaminated water, indicating its potential as a promising material for wastewater treatment applications.