Role of defects in metal oxides ZIFs and their composites for sustainable water treatment

Abstract

The increasing toxicity level due to dye effluents and pesticides in water bodies, soil, and uptake of these pesticides directly or indirectly result in various health complexities. Thus, there is a huge demand for improvising materials and techniques to remove or disintegrate these harmful pesticides from the environment. Developing a rapid novel materials with highly enriched active sites for interaction with toxic compounds are important and are in urgent need for advancement in the treatment of environmental pollutants in water bodies. Metal oxides and Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are widely used multifunctional materials due to their non-toxic nature, high thermal and chemical stability, high abundance, ease of use, cost effectiveness. Most importantly their structures can be deliberately modulated to acquire desire properties. On the other hand, catalysis and adsorption are the extensively used techniques for controlling this increasing harmful pollutants in water bodies. On this front, preparation of mixed metal oxide and MOFs comprising of ZnO, Iron Oxides, ZIF-8 and their related nanostructured functional composites are demonstrated with special emphases on remediation of harmful dye effluents and pesticides from water bodies.