MOFs for Emerging Pollutants Degradation

Emerging water pollutants are one of the most critical concerns of our modern society since they have toxic effects on the environment. Many of them are categorized as endocrine disruptors as they have carcinogenic and teratogenic properties. To a greater extent, these pollutants harm humans, aquatic animals, and plants, thus disturbing the balance of the ecosystem. In order to effectively reduce these pollutants from the environment, different nanomaterials are gaining attention for their application in environmental remediation. Among these nanomaterials, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as a promising platform for degrading the environmental pollutants. MOFs employ either adsorptive removal of the pollutants or photocatalytic degradation and convert them into innocuous form. Therefore, this book chapter aims to compile and analyse MOFs and their composites as potential materials for removing emerging organic contaminants like heavy metals, dyes, antibiotics, pathogens, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc. Various properties of MOFs such as high surface area, adsorption capacity, stability, structural tunability, and porosity have been extensively explained which directly impact the degradation process. Further, process parameters like removal rate, recyclability, adsorption capacity, bandgap, etc., are also highlighted. In conclusion, the current situation and future challenges associated with exploiting MOFs and their composites have been discussed for commercial purposes.