Abstract

Acute CrVI water pollution due to anthropogenic activities is an increasing worldwide concern. The high toxicity and mobility of CrVI makes it necessary to develop dual adsorbent/ion-reductive materials that are able to capture CrVI and transform it efficiently into the less hazardous CrIII. An accurate description of chromium speciation at the adsorbent/ion-reductive matrix is key to assessing whether CrVI is completely reduced to CrIII, or if its incomplete transformation has led to the stabilization of highly reactive, transient CrV species within the material. With this goal in mind, a dual ultraviolet–visible and electron paramagnetic spectroscopy approach has been applied to determine the chromium speciation within zirconium-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). Our findings point out that the generation of defects at Zr-MOFs boosts CrVI adsorption, whilst the presence of reductive groups on the organic linkers play a key role in stabilizing it as isolated and/or clustered CrIII ions.