The Use of Rapid Precipitation to Synthesise Multivariate UiO-66 Metal–Organic Frameworks for Photocatalysis

A rapid synthesis method is used to form multivariate metal–organic frameworks (MTV-MOFs) with the UiO-66 structure, where precipitation occurs upon mixing solutions of ligands and metal salts at temperatures less than 60 °C. The materials include mixtures of metals and ligands, Ce/Zr-UiO-66(1,4-NDC/BDC), Ce/Zr-UiO-66(1,4-NDC/2,6-NDC), Ce/Zr-UiO-66(1,4-NDC), Ce/Ti-UiO-66(1,4-NDC), and Ce/Ti-UiO-66(BDC-NH2) (NDC = naphthalene dicarboxylate, BDC = benzene-1,4-dicarboxylate, BDC-NH2 = 2-amino-benzene-1,4-dicarboxylate). Phase purity was determined by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), with a broadening of the profile indicative of nanoscale crystallites, verified by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The molar ratio of metals and organic ligands in Ce/Zr-UiO-66(1,4-NDC/2,6-NDC) was confirmed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and solution 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) after digestion, respectively. Analysis of the adsorption of dyes by the MTV-MOFs showed that a pseudo-first-order model accounts for the kinetics. The effectiveness of photocatalytic degradation of two cationic (methylene blue and rhodamine B) and two anionic (Congo red and Alizarin Red S (AR)) dyes was studied under UV and visible light. The most effective photocatalytic degradation was found between 1 and 15 min towards both cationic and anionic dyes by Ce/Zr-UiO-66(1,4-NDC/2,6-NDC). Measurements of recyclability and photostability showed retention of crystallinity after five cycles of use and exposure to light for 17 h, as confirmed by PXRD.