{rfName}
Ac

Indexed in

Citations

93

Altmetrics

Analysis of institutional authors

Giannakis, StefanosAuthor

Share

June 10, 2025
Publications
>
Article
No

Acid-engineered UiO-66(Ce): From the limitations of concealed MOF sites to catalytic excellence for rapid atrazine degradation

Publicated to: CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL. 516 163890- - 2025-07-15 516(), DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2025.163890

Authors:

Wang, D; Ying, YF; Cai, LW; Cheng, HJ; Giannakis, S; Moussavi, G; He, ZQ; Song, S; Ma, J
[+]

Affiliations

Harbin Inst Technol, Sch Environm, State Key Lab Urban Water Resource & Environm, Harbin 150090, Peoples R China - Author
Tarbiat Modares Univ, Fac Med Sci, Dept Environm Hlth Engn, Tehran, Iran - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, ETS Ingn Caminos Canales & Puertos, Dept Ingn Civil Hidraul Energia & Medio Ambiente, Environm Coast & Ocean Res Lab ECOREL UPM, C Prof Aranguren S-N, ES-28040 Madrid, Spain - Author
Zhejiang Univ Technol, Coll Chem Engn, State Key Lab Green Chem Synth & Convers, Hangzhou 310032, Peoples R China - Author
Zhejiang Univ Technol, Shaoxing Res Inst, Shaoxing 312085, Peoples R China - Author
See more

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) hold promise for catalytic ozonation in environmental remediation; however, their application is hindered by limited active site exposure and structural instability. This study introduces a novel acid-assisted ligand engineering approach to enhance the accessibility of the metal sites in UiO-66(Ce), a Ce-MOF catalyst. By substituting formic acid with certain organic ligands (terephthalic acid) and subsequent hydrochloric acid treatment, we synthesized UiO-66-F-H, a modified catalyst that exhibited significantly increased Lewis acid sites and enhanced structural robustness. Comparative analyses demonstrated that UiO-66-F-H achieved an atrazine degradation rate 5.7 times higher than that of its unmodified counterpart and 17.7 times that of ozonation alone under the optimal experimental conditions (pH = 7.0, T = 10 degrees C, and [O3] = 3 mg L-1). The characterization results confirmed a 40% increase in the number of surface Lewis acid sites and a notable improvement in catalyst stability, which was attributed to the exposed coordinated unsaturated Ce metal sites. The enhanced catalytic performance, coupled with superior stability and recyclability, suggests that UiO-66-F-H is a promising candidate for broader environmental applications, introducing a new paradigm for MOF modification. This study addresses the critical limitations of MOFs in catalytic ozonation and fosters the development of sophisticated MOF-based materials tailored for environmental remediation applications.
[+]

Keywords

Acid treatmentAcid treatmentsAir pollutionAtrazineAtrazine degradationCatalytic ozonationCoordination unsaturated ce metal siteCoordination unsaturated ce metal sitesDefect engineeringEnergy conservationEnvironmental remediationFacile synthesisInsulator contaminationLigand defect engineerinLigand defect engineeringMetal sitesMetal-organic frameworksMetalorganic frameworks (mofs)Natural attenuationOzonationReactive oxygen speciesRemediationRemovaWater pollution

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 3/83, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Engineering, Environmental. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-09:

  • WoS: 46
  • Scopus: 46
[+]

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-09:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 14.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 13 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).
[+]

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: China; Iran; Iraq.

[+]

Awards linked to the item

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52000158, 22076168, and 22278374) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LZ24B070002) . Gholamreza Moussavi would like to acknowledge the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) financial support through In-ternational Research Grant No. 4005730.
[+]