Speaker
Description
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent man-made chemicals that have posed major environmental issues in recent decades, deteriorating water quality. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a prominent member of these contaminants, as its extreme resistance and widespread bioaccumulation have raised worldwide concerns [1,2]. Developing more effective strategies to remediate aqueous sources from PFOA is therefore an urgent priority.
In this work [3] we introduce secondary-metal incorporation as a promising design strategy to improve PFOA adsorption in metal-organic framework (MOF) materials. Rational insertion of iron species was achieved within the nodes of the zirconium-based MOF-808 structure (Figure 1). This structural modification creates multiple accessible PFOA binding sites in close proximity, thereby promoting several synergistic interactions with the pollutant. As a result, the functionalized material achieves PFOA removal from water within minutes and shows improved experimental adsorption uptakes compared to the pristine MOF.
Ex/in situ synchrotron techniques (XAS analysis performed at BL-16 NOTOS beamline in ALBA) coupled with theoretical calculations provided unique insights in order to elucidate the framework structure and the synergistic adsorption mechanism. The results reveal a promising design strategy to improve PFAS adsorption via multiple-interaction mechanisms in MOFs, towards more efficient water remediation.
Figure 1: Schematic capture of perfluorooctanoic acid using Fe-functionalized MOF-808.
References
1 S.Y. Wee, A.Z. Aris, npj Clean Water 2023, 6, 57.
2 L. Ahrens, M. Bundschuh, Environ Toxicol Chem, 2014, 33, 9, 1921.
3 S. Marugán-Benito, M. Vlachos, L. Ahrens, M. Roselló, C. Marini, J. Prat Albert, A. Mavrandonakis, E. Loukopoulos, A. E. Platero-Prats, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2026, 148, 19, 19672.