Separation of molybdenum and tungsten using selective adsorption with zirconium based metal organic framework

• UiO-66 showed the excellent separation performance for Mo/W with β Mo/ W = 52.3. • Adsorption capacity retained 96 % displayed stability and reusability of UiO-66. • Physisorption is featured by pore size effect to selective adsorb Mo. • Chemisorption involved the formation of Zr-O-Mo bonds that enhance selectivity. The separation of tungsten and molybdenum has always been a significant challenge. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) has potential to solve the problem. In this study, the adsorption and separation performance of UiO-66 for tungsten and molybdenum and adsorption mechanism were investigated. UiO-66 was synthesized by solvothermal method. The physical and chemical properties of UiO-66 and adsorption mechanism were characterized and analyzed by XRD, SEM-EDS, FT-IR, Zeta-potential, XPS and thermodynamic analysis, the adsorption and separation performance of Mo/W using UiO-66 were evaluated by ICP-OES. UiO-66 with uniform pore size could be obtained under the conditions of crystallization for 24 h at 180 °C. This study revealed superior Mo/W separation performance under acidic conditions, where the adsorption capacity for Mo (Q Mo ) of UiO-66 was 219.4 mg⋅ g −1 and the highest separation factor (β Mo/W ) was 52.3. It was found that the mechanism involved the effect of pore size, electrostatic attraction and the metal point Zr had stronger affinity for Mo. This material was expected to serve as an eco-friendly and reusable adsorbent for separation of tungsten and molybdenum in resource recovery, aiming for high-quality regeneration of both metals.