A facile and universal method was developed to evaluate the relative water stability of porous MOFs and morphological evolution was achieved by controlling the volume ratio of DMF and H2O. The relative water stability of the studied MOFs is in the order HKUST-1 ＞ MOF-505 ∼ UMCM-150 ＞ NOTT-101 ＞ DUT-23(Cu) ＞ [Zn2(BPnDC)2(DABCO)] ∼ [Cu3(TPTrC)2(DABCO)] ＞ MOF-5. In addition, DUT-23(Cu) [Cu6(BTB)4(BPY)3] (H3BTB = 4,4′,4′′-benzene-1,3,5-triyl-tribenzoic acid, BPY = 4,4′-bipyridine) nanoparticles obtained with a volume ratio of DMF and H2O of 18 : 2 show excellent adsorption capacity for methylene blue (MB) (814 mg g−1) with high selectivity compared with methyl orange, rhodamine B, and acid chrome blue K dyes due to the size and the electrostatic repulsion effects in aqueous solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]