Various metal organic frameworks combined with imidazolium, quinolinum and benzothiazolium ionic liquids for removal of three antibiotics from water

Abstracts In this research, imidazolium, quinolinum and benzothiazolium based ionic liquids (ILs) were immobilized on a metal organic framework (MOF) by solvent impregnation or capillary action. The synthesized IL@MOF composite materials were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM and TGA methods and then applied in removal of tetracyclines (TCs) from aqueous samples. The presence of ionic liquids significantly improved the adsorption efficiency of the metal organic framework, with 82% or higher removal percentage was obtained for the three target TCs while the pristine MOFs adsorption efficiency was below 50%. This could be attributed to the ability of ILs to make complex interaction with target drugs via multiple intermolecular forces. Experimental results revealed the effects of three significant factors including pH, temperature and solid-liquid ratio, and optimum adsorption efficiency could be achieved at pH 8 and 30 °C when solid-liquid ratio = 1:2 was adopted. The adsorption kinetics was properly fitted with pseudo-second order model and Redlich-Peterson model could be used to describe the adsorption isotherm for three antibiotics; moreover, the adsorption was an endothermic and spontaneous process in nature. Finally, the adsorbed TCs could be desorbed efficiently and the performance of the IL@MOF sorbent was further verified by actual water samples.