Facile fabrication of bimetallic Fe–Mg MOF for the synthesis of xanthenes and removal of heavy metal ions

This work reported the preparation of Mg-MOF, Fe-MOF and Fe–Mg MOF by a solvothermal technique and their characterization with FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM and S(BET) analyses. The nanoparticle diameter ranged from 3.1 to 10.9 nm. The acidity of the MOFs was measured by nonaqueous potentiometric titration of n-butylamine. It was observed that the formation of a bimetallic MOF sharply increases the surface acidity and the catalytic activity. The catalytic results of the Fe–Mg MOF catalyzing the synthesis of 14-aryl-14-H-dibenzo[a,j]xanthenes in comparison with those of parent MOFs showed a higher yield of the desired product in a lower time and among various Fe : Mg, the (0.6 : 1) Fe–Mg MOF showed the highest catalytic activity and acidity. Even after the 4(th) run, the Fe–Mg MOF catalyst still maintained nearly the initial catalytic activity. The adsorption performance of Mg-MOF, Fe-MOF and Fe–Mg MOF was evaluated by batch experiments. The effect of contact time, the solution pH, the adsorbent dose and the initial concentration of the heavy metal ions was discussed. It was found that the capacity of the bimetallic Fe–Mg MOF for Pb(ii), Cu(ii) and Cd(ii) adsorption was higher than that of the Mg-MOF and Fe-MOF, the kinetic data followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the isothermal data obeyed the Langmuir isotherm model. The mechanism of the removal of the heavy metal ions was discussed.