Solar Assisted Removal of Methylene Blue Dye from Wastewater Using Zinc-Metal Organic Framework (Zn-MOF)

Water pollution has become a major environmental threat owing to the expeditious development of industries. These industries rapidly release wastewater containing harmful dyes (organic pollutants), which significantly affect the lives of humans and aquatic organisms to a huge extent. Therefore, the elimination of the pollutants in the contaminated water has become the primary need of the moment that is to be treated before it discharges into the environment. This article mainly focuses on the adsorption mechanism of the organic dye methylene blue from wastewater under sunlight using a zinc-metal organic framework (Zn-MOF). The Zn-MOF, being a three-dimensional porous structure was synthesized by the direct precipitation method using zinc metal ions and terephthalic acid (or) benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid as a connecting linker. Then, morphological and optical characterizations, along with the analysis of thermal and surface parameters, were performed for the synthesized Zn-MOF. The synthesized Zn-MOF appeared to be in a cubic form with a pore volume of about 0.006 cc/g. It was also found to have a surface area of 4.705 m 2 /g, with an absorbance range of 239.39 nm. The elemental composition of zinc in the synthesized Zn-MOF was approximately 25.41%, proving that the synthesized MOF is a Zinc-based MOF. As the results showed many properties related to the adsorption mechanism, Zn-MOF was chosen to proceed with the adsorptive application of removing the methylene blue dye from wastewater under sunlight. This application provides an efficient solution for the treatment of wastewater through the adsorption property of Zn-MOF, thereby proving its potential as an adsorbent.