The textile manufacturing industry is among the world’s top producers of organic pollutants. When released into the environment, these dyes are toxic and detrimental to aquatic organisms. Adsorption remains the most widely-used technology for dye removal because of its technological maturity and ease of operation. Cyclodextrin metal-organic frameworks (CD-MOFs) have a high surface area and unique coordination chemistry that enable them to be used as a carrier material for various materials. However, it is unstable in water, limiting its application in aqueous solutions.

In the study of Lopez, the application of CD-MOFs in treating cationic and anionic dyes in water was reported for the first time by forming a composite with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to form composite beads. The composition of the composite beads was optimized through a Box-Behnken design of experiments. Their research showed that CD-MOFs could be used as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment.