Making photoactive MOFs: Properties and applications in water purification

Ward, Dominic 2023. Making photoactive MOFs: Properties and applications in water purification. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis describes the synthesis of a series of isoreticular zirconium-based (UiO) MOFs. The MOFs were tested for their ability to remove a series of 19 metal cations from aqueous media, characterised by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) which determined the MOFs had the strongest adsorption performance towards Hg2+ . The UiO MOFs synthesised were modified with spiropyran units via post synthetic modification (PSM) imparting the MOFs with photo- and thermal-switching properties that were characterised using diffuse reflectance ultraviolet-visible light spectroscopy (DR-UV-vis). The isomerisation of the spiropyran units in the modified materials was cycled both in-situ and ex-situ which suggested that cycling the spiropyran units with UV/visible irradiation causes the efficiency of switching to drop after just two cycles, whereas cycling using elevated temperatures/visible light did not seem to effect cycling efficiency after four cycles. The modified materials were also tested for their ability to adsorb metal cations and determined that the inclusion of spiropyran units enhanced the adsorption of metal cations, the modified materials also showed a preference for adsorption of Hg2+ . Finally, DFT calculations were performed on open spiropyran (merocyanine) complexes with metal cations. The calculations revealed the simulated structures to be generally consistent with previously reported metal-ligand complexes, however certain metal cations failed to provide structures with reasonable bond lengths/ angles, indicating that further work is required to optimise the simulations to effectively predict the binding behaviour of the ligands.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Chemistry
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	31 July 2024
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2024 14:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171061

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