Study on adsorption of salicylic acid and sulfosalicylic acid by MOF–sodium alginate gel beads obtained in a green way

A composite (ZS–UiO–66–NH2) zirconium crosslinked sodium alginate gel beads (ZS)–metal–organic skeleton (UiO–66–NH2) were prepared in this study through in–situ growth under simple, green and mild conditions for removal of the salicylic acid (SA) and sulfosalicylic acid (SSA) from water. The physicochemical properties of ZS–UiO–66–NH2 were characterized using various analytical methods. The influencing factors in the adsorption process including pH of solution, amount of adsorbent, coexisting ions, adsorption time, reaction temperature and equilibrium concentration of SA/SSA were performed in batch adsorption. The experimental results indicated that ZS–UiO–66–NH2 had high stability and could achieve efficient adsorption of SA/SSA in broad pH range (2–9) and salinity (0–0.2 mol·L−1). SA and SSA adsorbed on the composite at 293 K reached high values of 193 and 167 mg·g−1 from Langmuir model, respectively. Kinetic and isotherm studies demonstrated that the adsorption processes were mainly multilayer heterogeneous chemisorption. Thermodynamic data manifested that the two processes were exothermic and spontaneous with increasing entropy. ZS–UiO–66–NH2 can effectively remove SA/SSA from simulated wastewater under different pH and can be reused after elution with a NaHCO3 solution (5 mmol·L−1). The ZS–UiO–66–NH2 composite has great potential for removing SA/SSA from actual water bodies. •The preparation process of ZS–UiO–66–NH2 is simple, green and economical.•ZS–UiO–66–NH2 has high adsorption performance for SA and SSA.•The two adsorption processes of SA and SSA show wide pH application range.•ZS–UiO–66–NH2 has ideal recycling performance.