Selective Adsorption of Metal–Organic Framework toward Methylene Blue: Behavior and Mechanism

In this study, Cu-BTC, a kind of metal–organic framework, was used as an adsorbent to selectively adsorb methylene blue (abbreviated as MB) from dye mixed wastewater. The synthesized Cu-BTC was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicated that the synthesized Cu-BTC have an octahedral structure, with its specific surface area at 45.16 m2/g and the pore sizes at 35–40 nm. The influence of various parameters including the initial solution pH, temperature, ionic strength, initial concentration, and contact time on MB adsorption by Cu-BTC was investigated in detail. The adsorption capacity of Cu-BTC toward MB was optimized at the pH value of 8, with a lower temperature and a higher ionic strength. The adsorption isotherm was found to fit well with the Langmuir model, and the kinetic curve was found to be in good agreement with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption mechanism was revealed to be the combined effects of hydrophobicity and electrostatic adsorption. The synthesized Cu-BTC adsorption material showed great potential for recovering MB from dye-mixed wastewater.