Hierarchical Porous Cu-BTC Doped with N(II) for Efficient Removal of Tetracycline from Water

In this study, a Ni(II) - doped hierarchical porous metal-organic framework (HP - Ni - Cu - BTC, H3BTC=benzene - 1,3,5 - tricarboxylic acid) hierarchical porous metal - organic framework was successfully prepared, and applied as an adsorbent for the removal of tetracycline (TC). The N(II) doping and hierarchical porosity structure significantly increased the adsorption capacity of TC, which was 3.28 times that of microporous Cu - BTC. The adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherm studies demonstrated that chemisorption dominated the adsorption reaction and that the adsorption of TC on HP-Ni-Cu-BTC proceeds through multilayer adsorption on a non-homogeneous adsorbent surface. Moreover, in the cycling experiments, there was still 71.45% adsorption efficiency after four times of reuse, indicating that HP-Ni-Cu-BTC had good reusability.