Facile fabrication of ZIF‐8 embedded millimeter‐sized porous polyethersulfone beads for selective dye removal

ZIF‐8 particles show excellent selective adsorbing ability for methyl blue (MB). However, the main problem of ZIF‐8 particles as adsorbents is the difficulty of recovery from residual solution after use due to the nano‐sized dimension. In this study, ZIF‐8 particles were embedded into polyethersulfone (PES) polymer and a phase‐inversion method was used to synthesize millimeter‐sized beads. Such composite beads showed an excellent MB adsorption performance (50 ppm MB in 40 ml aqueous solution can be fully absorbed by 400 mg of ZIF‐8/PES within 1 h). Moreover, due to millimeter size and good floatability (hydrophobic nature of polymer), such ZIF‐8/PES beads are easy to handle and can be fully recovered from dye solution after adsorption without using complex processes such as centrifugation. Through this study, a facile method was offered to synthesize millimeter‐sized beads containing adsorbents, making the adsorption process less complicated and much easier to operate. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:3896–3902, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers