Highly selective ferric ion sorption and exchange by crystalline metal phosphonates constructed from tetraphosphonic acids.

With the motivation of searching for highly selective ferric ion sorbents, two open-framework and microporous materials, {[Pb7(HEDTP)2(H2O)] x 7H2O}n (1) and {[Zn2(H4EDTP)] x 2H2O}n (2) [H8EDTP = N,N,N',N'-ethylenediaminetetrakis(methylenephosphonic acid)], have been synthesized and structurally characterized. The structure of compound 1 results from the seven crystallographically different lead atoms that are bridged by two HEDTP(7-) ligands to yield a three-dimensional microporous framework with tunnels along the a and b axes. Compound 2 features a layer architecture built of square waves along the a axis. The layers are connected by hydrogen bonds between uncoordinated phosphonate oxygen atoms to form a three-dimensional supramolecular network, with one-dimensional tunnels along the a axis. Both compounds 1 and 2 exhibited high ion sorption and exchange capacities for millimolar concentrations of Fe(III). Specifically, when 0.01 g of 1 (or 2) was added to 5 mL of a 1 mM metallic chloride aqueous solution and the mixture was allowed to stand for 2 days at room temperature, compound 1 adsorbed nearly 100% of Fe(III) and compound 2 adsorbed 96.8% of Fe(III). They were also found to adsorb ferric ions selectively over other metal ions, such as Ca(II), Cr(II), Mn(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), etc. Their special ferric ion uptake capacities may be attributed to the cation exchange, coordination bonding, and electrostatic attraction between ferric ions and metal phosphonates.