Nanoparticle@metal-organic frameworks as a template for hierarchical porous carbon sponges

The preparation of hierarchical porous carbon sponges (HCS) from metal oxide nanoparticle@metal‐organic frameworks is reported. ZnO nanoparticles are partially converted to zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) crystals in presence of n‐butylamine to obtain ZnO@ZIF‐8 porous hybrids. After direct carbonization, followed by ZnO acidic etching, ZnO@ZIF‐8 crystals were converted to submicrometric HCS. Due to the high surface area and accessible porosity, combining micro‐ and mesoporosity of HCS, their application for the extraction of water pollutants was studied by preparing HCS/polymer membranes, and showed a high efficiency for the fast (650 L m⁻² h⁻¹) removal of plastic degradation by‐products (DBP, dibutyl phthalate. DEHP, bis(2‐n‐ethylhexyl)phthalate). DBP and DEHP breakthroughs were lower than 3 % after the filtration of 100 mL of water containing simultaneously both phthalates at a high concentration level (300 μg L⁻¹, each). HCS/polymer membranes were reusable up to 5 times, maintaining their extraction capacity, with relative errors of 6 % for DBP, and <1 % for DEHP.