Metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) with large specific surface area, tunable pore size, versatile structures, functionality, and relative thermal and chemical stability, have applications in a wide range of topics from adsorption, catalysis, environment and medicine, and electronic devices.
The metal gel to MOFs conversion strategy, initially developed from ZIF-8 and MOF-5 aerogels synthesis in this study, has been extended to other tens of MOF aerogels synthesis with discussion of correlation between detailed conversion parameters and resulted properties. The as-prepared MOF aerogels possessed high specific surface area, crosslinking networks, and mesoporous channels, allowing improved mass diffusion and transportation. The formation mechanism has been revealed based on a series of MOF aerogel exploration, and also found to be facile for fabricating recyclable magnetic Fe3O4-ZIF-8 mesoporous adsorbents for efficient removal of methylene blue and diclofenac from aqueous media, and it was two times higher than that of activated carbon in terms of adsorption capacity. The small sized magnetic colloids has also been successfully incorporated into ZIF-8 crystals, which allows high loading of ferulic acid (556 mg/g) and moderate release rate (62% in 4 days) under blood circulation pH and fast release under acidic conditions, exhibiting the great potential as a targeted drug carrier.
Additionally, the solutions for utilizing MOFs in presence of moisture and more server mechanical circumstance have been built, two individual routes for preparing highly compressible and hydrophobic porous aerogel-like MOF monoliths were well investigated firstly to the best of our knowledge and showed the satisfactory results upon utilization in gas and liquid removal. The work may open scientific and industrial applications of MOFs.