Rapid and Efficient Removal of Carbamazepine from Water by UiO-67

Carbamazepine is a persistent contaminant detected in surface and ground waters. In this study we present the adsorptive removal of carbamazepine from water in the metal–organic frameworks UiO-66 and UiO-67 in comparison with a commercial activated carbon F400. While UiO-66 was ineffective in removing carbamazepine, UiO-67 showed superior performance by removing 95% of carbamazepine from a 100 mg L–1 aqueous carbamazepine solution in just 2 min. In contrast, it took F400 more than an hour to remove 88% of the carbamazepine under the same conditions. We further show that UiO-67 can be regenerated repeatedly with no or negligible carbamazepine removal capacity loss, which demonstrates its potential as a durable and promising adsorbent that can be used for the removal of carbamazepine from water.