Tuning the hydrophobicity of MOF sponge for efficient oil/water separation
Tasmia Azam, Erum Pervaiz, Sofia Javed, Sundus Jabeen Amina, Muhammad Khalid
Abstract
Current work is focused on fabrication of MOF based hydrophobic sponge using single step in-situ coating of Zeolitic Immidazole Framework-8 (ZIF-8) on polyurethane sponge. The physicochemical characterizations have confirmed the growth of ZIF-8 on sponge skeleton. Effect of ZIF-8 loading on hydrophobicity of sponge is studied by contact angle analysis for all samples. It is found that the optimized molar ratio 1:8.08: 124.93 of Zn+2, 2-methylimidazole (Hmim) and MeOH forms a uniform layer of ZIF-8 on sponge skeleton that gives highest water contact angle of 129.2o and good absorption capacity for different oils/organic solvents ranging from 28 to 79 times of its own weight. Facile fabrication without requiring pre-modification of sponge by surfactants have made MOF sponge easy to handle and reliable for oily water treatment.