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-NH) 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-NH membrane. Besides, the adsorption of phenolic endocrine disruptors (e.g., 4-nonylphenol) on original ZIF-8 membrane and ZIF-8/PEG-NH membrane was investigated, and the good adsorption selectivity of ZIF-8/PEG-NH membrane towards 4-nonylphenol was demonstrated, with high adsorption capacity and fast adsorption dynamics. Excitingly, such ZIF-8/PEG-NH membrane was successfully employed for the selective detection of 4-nonylphenol from environmental water samples, demonstrating its great application potential in environmental monitoring.