Ultrastable MOF-based foams for versatile applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are attractive for promising applications but plagued by difficult recovery and deployment due to their intrinsic nano/micro powder nature. Although significant efforts have been made to develop separable solid matrixes for MOF supporting, the poor loading stability and durability of MOFs still challenge their engineering applications. Here, we present a facile and effective approach to fabricate MOF-based melamine foams (MFs) (denoted as MOFiths) with ultrahigh loading stability and operation stability, easy separation, and high-efficient performance for versatile robust applications. By adopting our approach, numbers of typical fragile MOFs characterized with wide ranges of particle size (from ~ nm to ~ μm) can be precisely incorporated into MFs with controllable loading ratios (up to ~ 1,600%). Particularly, the produced MOFiths show excellent capacities for the highly effective and durable water purifications and acetalization reactions. 100% of organic pollutants can be rapidly destructed within 10 min by MOFiths initiated Fenton or catalytic ozonation processes under five successive cycles while the maximum adsorption capacity of MOFiths toward Pb(II), Cd(II), and Cu(II) reaches to 422, 222, and 105 mg·g⁻¹, respectively. This study provides a critical solution to substantially facilitate the engineering applications of MOFs for long-term use in practice.