LAUSR

Abstract The excessive discharge of phosphate in water bodies is one of the primary factors causing eutrophication. Therefore, its removal is of significant research interest. The present study deals with the development and performance of highly effective phosphate‐adsorbent. Here, we have synthesized MIL‐100(Fe) metal‐organic frameworks as a facile strategy to effectively remove phosphate from eutropic water samples. The adsorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and wavelength dispersive X‐ray fluorescence (WDXRF). The phosphate adsorption performance of MIL‐100(Fe) was evaluated with the help of different batch experiments relating to the effect of adsorbent/adsorbate concentrations and the solution pH. The MOF offered a maximum adsorption capacity of 93.6 mg g−1 for phosphate from aqueous solutions with Langmuir isotherm model (R2 = 0.99). MIL‐100(Fe) offered an absolute phosphate adsorption performance with a partition co‐efficient of 15.98 mg g−1 &mgr;M−1 at pH 4 and room temperature conditions. Final experiments with real water samples were also performed to examine the effectiveness of MIL‐100(Fe) for phosphate adsorption even in the presence of other ions. These findings support the potential utility of MIL‐100(Fe) as nanoadsorbent in phosphate removal for water management. HighlightsMIL−100(Fe) was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal route.MIL‐100(Fe) exhibited high surface area of 790.5 m2 g−1 with an average pore diameter of 1.71 nm.Effects of adsorbent concentrations, solution pH, and adsorbate concentrations were examined.The adsorbent exhibited maximum adsorption capacity of 93.55 mg g−1.The performance of MIL‐100(Fe) examined for phosphate adsorption from real water samples.