3D printing of metal-organic frameworks decorated hierarchical porous ceramics for high-efficiency catalytic degradation

Abstract Combination of porous catalyst carriers and high-performance catalysts has attracted increasing attention due to their efficient, reusable and durable characteristics in water purification. Herein, we report a design of three dimensional printed hierarchical porous ceramics that can in-situ load metal-organic frameworks-based catalysts by facile hydrothermal treatment. The resultant supported catalysts with hierarchical features are capable to completely decompose organic dyes based on Fenton reaction, exhibiting the highest removal efficiency and dye degradation rate (kobs) of 99.68% and 0.2915 min−1, respectively. Moreover, its catalytic degradation rates are much greater than other reported Fe-/Cu-based metal organic framework heterogeneous Fenton catalysts. The outstanding catalytic degradation performance towards organic dyes is ascribed to their large surface area, numerous active sites, and hierarchical matter transport channels in the interconnected porous networks. Also, the three-dimensional (3D) printed hierarchical porous catalysts demonstrate lasting degradation efficiency (>75%) over 50 reusable cycles. More importantly, two types of catalytic reactors, such as 3D-printed catalytic filter and impeller agitator, have been successfully manufactured by the present strategy. This work uncovers a novel strategy that not only enables complex and efficient multiscale porous 3D catalysts, but also presents considerable prospects in the aspects of functional devices for water treatment.