Researchers at the University of Birmingham (UB) have redesigned a manufacturing step for an eco-friendly water-treatment material, cutting its estimated production cost by more than two-thirds while preserving its ability to remove lead from contaminated water.
In this research, the UB team focused on metal organic frameworks, or MOFs. These advanced materials feature metal nodes connected by organic linkers, forming a cage-like structure with enormous internal surface area that acts like a sponge to selectively capture heavy metals dissolved in water.
Despite their promise, many MOF manufacturing routes are solvent- or energy-intensive, and the metals used to build them can sometimes leach back into the water being treated, limiting most MOFs to pilot or demonstration stage.
The UB team had already developed a novel method to make a green-synthesized MOF using a scalable water-based process. The newest work refines how that material is processed afterward, using a freeze-drying technique that increases isolated yield more than 3x and cuts estimated electricity demand per gram by about 74 percent—lowering the estimated lab-scale production cost from $19 per gram to just over $5 per gram compared with conventional processing.
Published in Green Chemistry, testing on real-world water samples showed the freeze-dried material removed more than 90 percent of lead within the first hour, with strong performance maintained across four consecutive treatment batches and low copper leaching. The material also retained its structural integrity after 7 days of exposure to air, freshwater-like conditions and artificial seawater.
The researchers are now seeking industrial partners in mining, e-waste or water treatment interested in licensing the technology or co-developing a pilot-scale trial in a real-world setting.
Data from University of Birmingham