A Poly(ethylenglycol) Functionalized ZIF-8 Membrane Prepared by Coordination-Based Post-Synthetic Strategy for the Enhanced Adsorption of Phenolic Endocrine Disruptors from Water

Metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes have received increasing attention as adsorbents, yet single phase MOF membranes have certain limitations, which frustrate their capacity performance. In this work a MOF composite membrane was successfully prepared by a facile and green strategy through reasonable design. At first, a defect-free ZIF-8 membrane was fabricated on an ionic liquid modified pencil bar by a solvothermal method. Then, a novel poly(ethylenglycol) functionalized ZIF-8 composite membrane (ZIF-8/PEG-NH2) was prepared through a flexible coordination-based post-synthetic modification strategy. We found that reaction time and temperature were two crucial factors for successfully fabricating well-defined ZIF-8/PEG-NH2 membrane. Besides, the adsorption of phenolic endocrine disruptors (e.g., 4-nonylphenol) on original ZIF-8 membrane and ZIF-8/PEG-NH2 membrane was investigated, and the good adsorption selectivity of ZIF-8/PEG-NH2 membrane towards 4-nonylphenol was demonstrated, with high adsorption capacity and fast adsorption dynamics. Excitingly, such ZIF-8/PEG-NH2 membrane was successfully employed for the selective detection of 4-nonylphenol from environmental water samples, demonstrating its great application potential in environmental monitoring.