Rapid synthesis of Titanium based Metal Organic framework (MIL-125) via microwave route and its performance evaluation in photocatalysis

In this work, we report rapid synthesis procedure of MIL-125 (or, Ti-BDC) Metal Organic Framework (MOF) via microwave route. The synthesized product was characterized using SEM, powder XRD, FT-IR analysis, TGA and UV-Vis diffused reflectance spectroscopy. The aim of this work was to establish a faster synthesis methodology for bulk synthesis of a potential MOF. The optimum synthesis temperature and time were found to be 120 °C and 40 min respectively. The variation of both microwave power and development of pressure during the synthesis conditions were closely monitored and it was observed that at optimum synthesis conditions, during the initial heating rate period, the pressure was linearly developed and reached a maximum value of ca. 14 bar, however, during the holding time both the pressure and power remained fairly constant at around 6 bar and 10 W respectively. The product was found photocatalytically active with a band gap energy of 3.14 eV and successfully degraded methylene blue dye to ca. 96.77% in 360 min.