Efficient Dye Extraction from Wastewater Using Indium-MOF-Immobilized Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membranes with Selective Filtration for Enhanced Remediation.

Industrial activities have led to releasing harmful substances into the environment, necessitating the elimination of these toxic compounds from wastewater. Organic dyes, commonly found in industrial effluents, pose a threat to ecosystems and human health. Conventional treatment methods often suffer from limitations such as high cost and poor efficiency. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as promising materials for selective separation, including membrane filtration (MF). Mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) combining MOFs with polymers offer improved filtration properties. In this study, MMMs were fabricated by incorporating synthesized In-MOF with a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer (In-MOF@PVDF MMMs) using the nonsolvent-induced phase separation process. The MMMs were evaluated for the MF of various organic dyes, achieving notable removal efficiencies. The membrane containing 20% In-MOF (M4) demonstrated exceptional performance, removing 99% of the methylene blue (MB) dye. Additionally, membrane M4 effectively filtered Azure A (AZA), Azure B (AZB), and toluidine blue O (TOLO) with a removal efficiency of 99%. However, for Rhodamine B (RHB) and methyl orange (MO), the removal efficiencies were slightly lower at 74 and 39%, respectively. Further, these membranes are utilized in selective dye filtration in the MB+/RHB+ and MB+/MO- systems, where the selectivity was found for MB. The isothermal and DFT studies revealed the membrane's behavior with dye mixtures, while water stability and regeneration studies confirmed its durability. Thus, these findings highlight the potential of In-MOF@PVDF MMMs for effective and selective dye removal in wastewater treatment applications.

Amyloid detection in neurodegenerative diseases using MOFs.

Neurodegenerative diseases (amyloid diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's), stemming from protein misfolding and aggregation, encompass a spectrum of disorders with severe systemic implications. Timely detection is pivotal in managing these diseases owing to their significant impact on organ function and high mortality rates. The diverse array of amyloid disorders, spanning localized and systemic manifestations, underscores the complexity of these conditions and highlights the need for advanced detection methods. Traditional approaches have focused on identifying biomarkers using imaging techniques (PET and MRI) or invasive procedures. However, recent efforts have focused on the use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a versatile class of materials known for their unique properties, in revolutionizing amyloid disease detection. The high porosity, customizable structures, and biocompatibility of MOFs enable their integration with biomolecules, laying the groundwork for highly sensitive and specific biosensors. These sensors have been employed using electrochemical and photophysical techniques that target amyloid species under neurodegenerative conditions. The adaptability of MOFs allows for the precise detection and quantification of amyloid proteins, offering potential advancements in early diagnosis and disease management. This review article delves into how MOFs contribute to detecting amyloid diseases by categorizing their uses based on different sensing methods, such as electrochemical (EC), electrochemiluminescence (ECL), fluorescence, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), up-conversion luminescence resonance energy transfer (ULRET), and photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing. The drawbacks of MOF biosensors and the challenges encountered in the field are also briefly explored from our perspective.

MOF/POM hybrids as catalysts for organic transformations.

Insertion of molecular metal oxides, e.g. polyoxometalates (POMs), into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) opens up new research opportunities in various fields, particularly in catalysis. POM/MOF composites have strong acidity, oxygen-rich surface, and redox capacity due to typical characteristics of POMs and the large surface area, highly organized structures, tunable pore size, and shape are due to MOFs. Such hybrid materials have gained a lot of attention due to astonishing structural features, and hence have potential applications in organic catalysis, sorption and separation, proton conduction, magnetism, lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, electrochemistry, medicine, bio-fuel, and so on. The exceptional chemical and physical characteristics of POMOFs make them useful as catalysts in simple organic transformations with high capacity and selectivity. Here, the thorough catalytic study starts with a brief introduction related to POMs and MOFs, and is followed by the synthetic strategies and applications of these materials in several catalytic organic transformations. Furthermore, catalytic conversions like oxidation, condensation, esterification, and some other types of catalytic reactions including photocatalytic reactions are discussed in length with their plausible catalytic mechanisms. The disadvantages of the POMOFs and difficulties faced in the field have also been explored briefly from our perspectives.