Bottom-Up Formation of Carbon-Based Magnetic Honeycomb Material from Metal–Organic Framework–Guest Polyhedra for the Capture of Rhodamine B

Three-dimensional carbon-based porous materials have proven to be quite useful for tailoring material properties in the energy conservation and environmental protection applications. In view of the three-dimensional and well-defined structure of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), a novel carbon-based magnetic porous material (HKUST–Fe3O4) has been designed and constructed by MOF–guest interactions of high-temperature pyrolysis. The obtained HKUST–Fe3O4 exhibited the unique features of superparamagnetism, a macro/mesoporous structure, environmental protection (inexistence of toxic heavy metal ions), and physicochemical stability and has shown high adsorption capacity and rapid adsorption for carcinogenic organic pollutants (for example, rhodamine B) with an environmentally friendly character and excellent reusability. We demonstrate that the unique/superior advantages of HKUST–Fe3O4 could meet the requirements of environment cleaning, especially for removing the targeted organic pollutant from water. Moreover, the specific HKUST–Fe3O4 and organic pollutant interaction mechanism has been analyzed in detail via parameter-free calculations. This study proposes a promising strategy for constructing novel carbon-based magnetic nanomaterials for various applications, not limitated to pollutant removal.