Pb(II) adsorption by a calcium metal-organic framework

Among the water pollution sources, heavy metals are considered as the most hazardous, because of high toxicity to human health and badly damage the kidneys, brain and nerves as well as causing birth defects. Based on the promising feature of metal-organic frameworks, MOFs, they could act as a favorable candidate for heavy metal removal applications. A calcium-based metal-organic framework was synthesized by the deposition method using benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylate as linker. After characterization of the MOF performed using XRD, SEM and FTIR analyses, it was applied to efficient adsorption of Pb(II) pollutant ions. The potential of obtained MOF, [Ca(H₂btec).H₂O]_n, H₂btec: benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylic acid was investigated by the adsorption of Pb(II) ions in aqueous solution, separation of the adsorbent by centrifugation and finally measuring the residual Pb(II) ions by ICP-AES method.