Arsenic is one of the most common groundwater contaminants causing serious environmental and health problems worldwide. Arsenic remediation using metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) offers a promising approach for arsenic removal owing to their structural tunability, adjustable pore size, and large surface area. This review explores the adsorption mechanisms, versatile functionality, and dimensionality of MOFs, highlighting their potential for arsenic removal. Various synthesis techniques, arsenic adsorption efficiencies, mechanisms, pH dependencies, adsorption isotherms, and adsorption kinetic models are examined in the context of MOFs used for arsenic removal. Functionalized and hybrid MOFs further improve the adsorption performance and selectivity toward arsenic removal via synergetic interactions. The review also discusses the key factors influencing the performance of MOFs, which include pH, competing ions, isotherms, and kinetic models. Despite their advantages, challenges such as hydrolytic stability, scalability, and high cost limit the wide-ranging application of MOFs. However, with advancements in synthesis techniques, structural modifications and integration into practical water treatment systems, MOFs can provide a sustainable and large-scale solution for arsenic removal. This review provides an overview of the recent progress of MOFs in the field of arsenic remediation and suggests some future directions for their further improvement in practical applicability under real-world conditions.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in underground mining environment pose serious threats to groundwater and surface ecological environment with the migration and flow of mine water. We collected 26 underground samples from six mines of Xuzhou, including coal, mine water, and underground sludge, to measure the 16 PAHs, aiming to investigate the contamination level, distribution, and possible sources and to estimate the ecological risks of PAHs. Results showed that the concentrations of 16-PAHs (mean value) in the coal, mine water, and underground sludge were 15.87 μg/g, 0.82 μg/L, and 10.63 μg/g, respectively. There was a significant difference in the number of rings between different coals, and 2-3 ring PAHs occupied the majority of PAHs in mine water, which was determined by the K_ow of PAHs. Coal and underground sludge contained more carcinogenic PAHs than mine water. And the main carcinogenic PAHs in coal were BaA, BbF, and InP, and for underground sludge were BbF, CHr, and BaP. Risk quotient (RQ) was used to evaluate the ecological risk of mine drainage, showing that PAHs in mine water were generally at medium-high risk levels. This study highlights the PAHs pollution problems in underground mining environment, particularly the potential ecological risks of mine drainage in Xuzhou.