Fabrication of Metal–Organic Framework/Polymer Composites via a One-Pot Solvent Crystal Template Strategy

Metal–organic framework (MOF)/polymer composites combining advantages of both materials have received significant attention in the recent years. However, the complexity and inefficiency of the current fabrication approaches have hindered their further development. Herein, we demonstrate a facile one-pot solvent crystal template strategy to efficiently fabricate ZIF-8/polyurethane (PU) composites. This method eliminated the pre-synthesis and purification of MOFs, thus greatly simplifying the fabrication process. Moreover, the solvent crystal template introduced macropores in the polymer matrix, which generated a hierarchically porous structure to facilitate the molecular diffusion in the composite. The obtained ZIF-8/PU composites exhibited an accelerated dye adsorption rate constant of 1.89 × 10–3 g mg–1 min–1, which was 2.6 times higher than that of MOF powders. The Langmuir isotherm study further confirmed favorable adsorption of dye molecules with a maximum adsorption capacity of 18.1 mg g–1.