Preparation of Zr-MOF membranes via vapor-assisted conversion for efficient dye rejection

Vapor-phase deposition for the preparation of metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes is of great interest in its scalable and sustainable manufacturing. Nevertheless, there remains no report on vapor-assisted conversion (VAC) for preparation of zirconium-based MOF membranes to date. Here, we established a VAC protocol for preparing UiO-66 membranes on the porous α-Al 2 O 3 tube. It was found that the substrate surface modification, metal-to-ligand ratio and concentration of the modulator are crucial parameters to control the quality of the resulting membrane microstructure. The obtained UiO-66 membrane exhibited excellent dye rejection rates (>99.5 %) and reliable operation stability (no reduction in separation performance during 96 h). In addition, the VAC approach also can be adopted to synthesis of high-performance UiO-66-NH 2 and MOF-801 membranes. Therefore, the VAC protocol might open new horizons in sustainable production of water-stable MOF membranes for practical applications.