Abstract
Pharmaceutical contaminations pose serious threats to water quality and human health, while photocatalysis technology provides a solution to the decontamination. However, limited light energy transformation and severe charge recombination hamper the application of photocatalysts for broad-spectrum removal of trace pharmaceuticals. Here, the C − C bond as connection junction served to trigger the versatile synthesis of core-shell MOF@COFs with superior charge separation capability than corresponding parent COFs and MOFs, including MIL@V-TZ, MIL@DaV-TZ, and MIL@DaV-TAPB. The C − C bridge induced lower exciton binding energy (Eb, 42.66 meV) and overlap integral of electron-hole distribution (Sr, 0.57), endowing MIL@V-TZ with photocatalytic efficiencies of 9.8 − 70.2 min−1·g−1 for tetracycline, diclofenac, acetaminophen, and difloxacin. Based on the in-situ grown MIL@V-TZ film, a flow-through system was constructed to achieve ultra-efficient (>99%) and sustainable (up to 6000 min) pharmaceuticals removal without sacrificial agents. In-situ experiments revealed that the electrons were rapidly transferred and highly utilized to form •O2−, dominating the degradation of pharmaceuticals with reduced toxicity. By unveiling the role of C − C bridge in controllable assembly of heterostructures and boosting electron transfer, this work presents an avenue for water decontamination.
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Acknowledgements
This research uses the ultramicrotome and low-dose high-resolution transmission electron microscope from Instrumental Analysis & Research Center, and in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy from School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University.
Funding
G.O. discloses support for the research of this work from Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Functional Molecular [31000-42080002]. J.Z. discloses support for the research of this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [22476219, 22276222]. L.C. discloses support for the research of this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [22208118], the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province [2024A1515012236]. S.Z., C.M., Y.K., L.G., J.C., and X.F. declare no relevant funding.
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Zhou, S., Mao, C., Kuang, Y. et al. Ultrahigh charge utilization of C−C bridge-dependent MOF@COFs empowering sustainable removal of trace pharmaceuticals. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73541-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73541-y
