Precisely introducing active sites into NU-1000 through linker incorporation for degrading sulfamethoxazole under visible-light photo-Fenton process

Combining adsorption and catalytic degradation to remove micropollutants in water has become a scientific challenge. However, the current material possessing both suitable pore size and evenly distributed active sites together is less common. Herein, we synthesized stable mesoporous metal–organic framework (MOFs) with Zr₆ clusters and carboxylate linkers using solvent-assisted linker incorporation and post-synthetic metalation (NU-1000-Fe). A terpyridine-iron (II/III)-based metal–ligand was introduced into the porous channels successfully in Zr-MOFs without changing the mesoporous skeleton. The remained mesoporosity of the framework facilitated the adsorption of sulfamethylthiazole (SMX) in water (adsorption efficiency ∼ 40 %). Besides, it is verified that efficient p-n heterojunctions were successfully constructed by terpyridine-iron (II/III) and NU-1000. Results show that the accelerated charge transfer and photo-generated electron-hole separation abilities through introducing terpyridine-iron (II/III) facilitate the elimination of SMX in the process of visible-light photo-Fenton (removal efficiency > 90 %). Our findings offer a facile solvent-assisted ligand incorporation strategy for introducing additional active sites into MOFs to promote the degradation of micropollutants in water.