Photocatalytic degradation of aquatic organic pollutants with Zn- and Zr-based metal-organic frameworks: ZIF-8 and UiO-66.

Water treatment has been an essential issue with the increasing population over 40 years. Researchers center on the major organic pollutants, such as dyes, pesticides, and pharmaceutical products. Photocatalytic degradation is one of the promising methods for aquatic organic pollutant treatment. Over the years, scientists have been working on developments for photocatalysts to enhance their pollutant degradation performances. From the reviewed studies, it is seen that properties like surface area, chemical, mechanical, and thermal stability, and uniform distribution of active sites are crucial, and an increase in these properties provides better degradation efficiency. In this sense, metal-organic frameworks as photocatalysts can be considered more advantageous. This study focuses on the organic aquatic pollutant degradation studies by using well-known MOFs like ZIF-8 and UiO-66 photocatalysts. Mainly the organic dye (RhB, MB, MO, etc.) degradation efficiencies of ZIF-8 and UiO-66 have been achieved to 100%. Recently, the degradation capacities of various pharmaceuticals such as diazinon, acetaminophen, levofloxacin, and sulfamethoxazole have also been investigated. According to the reviewed studies, ZIF-8 and UiO-66 can be considered remarkable photocatalysts for the degradation of organic pollutants.