A multifunctional microporous metal-organic framework: efficient adsorption of iodine and column-chromatographic dye separation.

In this work, a multifunctional microporous metal-organic framework (MOF), [Cd(ABTC)(HO)(DMA)]·4DMA (JLNU-4; JLNU = Jilin Normal University; HABTC = 3,3',5,5'-azobenzenetetracarboxylic acid), has been synthesized based on the ligand HABTC under solvothermal conditions. JLNU-4 shows excellent uptake of iodine both in solution and in the vapor phase, owing to the existence of a microporous structure in JLNU-4. The adsorption kinetics during the process of iodine adsorption were analyzed a series of qualitative and quantitative analyses, such as the Langmuir and Freündlich adsorption isotherms. In addition, according to UV/vis spectroscopy analysis and the colour variance of JLNU-4, the relatively small sized dye methylene blue (MB) could be efficiently adsorbed by JLNU-4, through size-exclusion effects. Particularly, JLNU-4 can serve as a column-chromatographic filler for the separation of dye molecules. Therefore, JLNU-4 is a multifunctional microporous MOF for iodine adsorption and column-chromatographic dye separation.