Fluorinated Nonporous Adaptive Cages for the Efficient Removal of Perfluorooctanoic Acid from Aqueous Source Phases

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) accumulate in water resources and pose serious environmental and health threats due to their nonbiodegradable nature and long environmental persistence times. Strategies for the efficient removal of PFAS from contaminated water are needed to address this concern. Here, we report a fluorinated nonporous adaptive crystalline cage (F-Cage 2) that exploits electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding, and F–F interactions to achieve the efficient removal of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from aqueous source phases. F-Cage 2 exhibits a high second-order kobs value of approximately 441,000 g mg–1 h–1 for PFOA and a maximum PFOA adsorption capacity of 45 mg g–1. F-Cage 2 can decrease PFOA concentrations from 1500 to 6 ng L–1 through three rounds of flow-through purification, conducted at a flow rate of 40 mL h–1. Elimination of PFOA from PFOA-loaded F-Cage 2 is readily achieved by rinsing with a mixture of MeOH and saturated NaCl. Heating at 80 °C under vacuum then makes F-Cage 2 ready for reuse, as demonstrated across five successive uptake and release cycles. This work thus highlights the potential utility of suitably designed nonporous adaptive crystals as platforms for PFAS remediation.