Oregon State researchers make key advance toward removing common herbicide from groundwater

Researchers from Oregon State University and Tiangong University in Tianjin, China, have identified a material known as a metal-organic framework that could completely remove and break down the common herbicide glyphosate. Metal-organic frameworks are crystalline, porous materials with tunable structural properties and nanosized pores. The metal-organic framework studied by the researchers is based on scandium and a carboxylate linker. "When exposed to light for just five minutes, [this metal-organic framework] eliminated 100% of glyphosate in water," said Kyriakos Stylianou, one of the scientists involved in this study.