Enhanced removal of iodide from water induced by a metal-incorporated porous metal–organic framework

Abstract Silver(I) was successfully loaded into the water-stable MOF, MIL-101(Cr)-SO3H, via ion exchange process. Uniform distribution of –SO3H groups in the porous MOF and strong ionic interaction between –SO3− and silver(I) can prompt the distribution of silver(I) homogeneous in the resulted MIL-101(Cr)-SO3Ag. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, MIL-101(Cr)-SO3Ag was applied to the removal of iodide from aqueous solution, which is the first time to remove such toxicant using MOFs to the best of our knowledge. MIL-101(Cr)-SO3Ag shows a high iodide adsorption capacity of 244.2 mg g−1, much higher than that of the unmodified sample (94.1 mg g−1). Thus, we provide a convenient approach of loading metal ion in MOFs with the help of organic functional groups for the specific target.