Fe-based metal organic framework derivative with enhanced Lewis acidity and hierarchical pores for excellent adsorption of oxygenated volatile organic compounds

Highlights: • Fe-based MOF derivative (M-350) was derived from MIL-100(Fe) via thermal treatment. • M-350 exhibited remarkable adsorption performance and reproducibility for OVOCs. • The exposure of abundant Fe CUSs acting as Lewis acid enhanced the affinity for OVOCs. • High specific surface area and hierarchical porous structure further promoted OVOCs adsorption. A series of Fe-based metal organic framework derived materials were prepared by thermal treating MIL-100(Fe) in nitrogen atmosphere for adsorption removal of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) such as methanol, formaldehyde and acetone under dynamic conditions. The experimental results showed that the partially carbonized M-350 material obtained by calcining MIL-100(Fe) at 350 °C exhibited the best adsorption performance and high stability. The breakthrough adsorption capacity of M-350 for methanol was 61.5% higher than that of pure MIL-100 (Fe), and it was 24.7, 6.5 and 2.6 times higher than that of commercial activated carbon, ZSM-5 and SAPO-34 adsorbents, respectively. The excellent adsorption performance was attributed to the exposure of abundant coordinatively unsaturated iron metal sites acting as Lewis acid sites through high temperature calcination, which had a strong affinity for OVOCs. Meanwhile, a hierarchical porous structure and high specific surface area further promoted the adsorption. This work provides new insights into the further development of metal organic frameworks based functional materials for VOCs removal and purification.