Effective Adsorption of Cefradine from Wastewater with a Stable Zirconium Metal–Organic Framework

Antibiotic pollutants in wastewater may cause serious damage to the environment and human health. Therefore, it is of vital importance to remove them efficiently from wastewater. In this work, adsorption of cefradine, a typical β-lactam antibiotic, was studied in a stable metal–organic framework (PCN-222). Remarkably, it exhibits an excellent saturated adsorption capacity of 333.33 mg g –1, which is superior to the various reported adsorbents. It is observed that the π–π interaction and electrostatic interaction play essential roles in the adsorption process, leading to PCN-222 as a promising adsorbent of the class of β-lactam antibiotics from water.