Efficient removal of metal contaminants by EDTA modified MOF from aqueous solutions-dataset

The as-prepared EDTA modified UiO-66 (UiO-66-EDTA) was characterized completely to investigate its physical and chemical properties. It shows great chemical stability with octahedral structure and carboxylic groups and amine groups. Through batch experiments, UiO-66-EDTA shows no specificity for the removal of diverse heavy metal ions (three categories: soft acids, hard acids, and borderline acids) because of its both hard and relatively softer chemical characters of functional groups. The maximum removal capacities of UiO-66-EDTA for Eu3+ (hard acids), Hg2+ (soft acids) and Pb2+ (borderline acids) are 195.2, 371.6 and 357.9 mg g−1, respectively. Notably, 11 metal ions removal efficiency reaches over 99% in co-existing system. The results from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis reveal the coordination of Eu3+, Hg2+ and Pb2+ with carboxyl groups (COOH) and tertiary amine groups (CN(C)C) is responsible for their removal by UiO-66-EDTA.