The photothermal synthesis of Cu-BTC (HKUST-1) was performed based on previous reported literature with slight modification. Briefly, 87.5 mg Cu(NO3)2•3H2O and 15 g PVP (MW=30 K) were mixed in 2 mL DMF. To this added, 42 mg benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (BTC) dissolved in 1 mL DMF solution. The resulting solution was stirred for 10 mins, and photothermally heated at 80 °C using a 660 nm LED (8 W/cm 2 ) for 2 h. The solid MOF was collected after the reaction by centrifugation, washed with fresh DMF for twice and ethanol for three times.