Importance of surface modification of γ-alumina in creating its nanostructured composites with zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-67.

Application of zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) as an adsorbent has been greatly hindered by slow mass transfer of adsorbate molecules due to its inherent microporosity. To address this limitation, we have developed binary nanostructures composed of ZIF-67 and γ-alumina (GA) containing respectively micropores and large mesopores. The nanostructured composites were successfully prepared by coupling ZIF-67 and GA with and without surface modification with imidazole silane that mimics the building blocks of ZIF-67 to obtain GA-Im-ZIF-67 (with imidazole silane) and GA-ZIF-67 (without imidazole silane). The sizes of ZIF-67 crystals in these composites were smaller as compared to those of pure ZIF-67, and the textural properties of these composites with and without surface modification were quite similar. However, the surface grafting of alumina with imidazole silane played an important role in improving interfacial coupling between GA and ZIF-67, which resulted in significant changes in the dispersion of ZIF-67 crystals and better adsorption properties. The presence of large mesopores in the alumina-based composites containing smaller ZIF-67 crystals improved their adsorption properties toward dyes such as Rhodamine B (RhB). The RhB adsorption capacity of GA-Im-ZIF-67 was much higher than that of GA-ZIF-67, suggesting that the imidazole silane modification of GA before its coupling with ZIF-67 and the GA mesoporosity were essential for a substantial increase in the adsorption capacity of RhB.