Linker Encouraged Solid State Synthesis of MOF Derived Z-Scheme NiCo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>/NiO/C toward Efficient Removal of Organic and Inorganic Pollutants from Water
Sagar Chaudhari, Vinod Patil, Vishal A. Jadhav, Laxman S. Walekar, Abhijit N. Kadam, Vaishali Patil, Raisuddin Ali, Mohaseen S. Tamboli, Hyun‐Kyung Kim, Dattakumar Mhamane, Mukund G. Mali
Abstract
Here, we represent a solid-state route for the construction of MOF derived multifunctional Z-scheme NiCo 2 O 4 /NiO/C applied for the photocatalytic removal of methylene blue (dye) and tetracycline (drug) and the reduction of Cr(VI) (heavy metal). The developed solid-state method yielded a highly effective NiCo 2 O 4 /NiO/C catalyst by mechanically grinding independently produced Ni and Co-MOFs and subsequently pyrolyzing them. The use of different linkers in the Ni MOF (H 3 -BTC linker) and Co-MOF (2-methylimidazole linker) proved to be effective in constructing the NiCo 2 O 4 /NiO/C composite, ensuring a nonaggregated distribution on a carbon framework. Such a synthesized Z-scheme NiCo 2 O 4 /NiO/C composite has performed exceptionally well to achieve excellent degradation of MB (98.23% in 120 min) and TC (92.85% in 25 min) and Cr(VI) reduction (98.22% in 20 min), with excellent recyclability and stability. The NiCo 2 O 4 /NiO/C composite, synthesized using Ni and Co-MOFs prepared with different linkers, outperformed its counterpart prepared using Ni and Co-MOFs with identical linkers (either 2-methylimidazole or H 3 BTC). This study paves the way for the future synthesis of MOF derived bimetallic composites for photocatalytic applications.