ScienceDaily reports: Since their first use in World War I and most recently by the Assad regime in Syria, chemical weapons with
devastating potential have been developed. Therefore scientists have begun exploring the use of zirconium-based
metal-organic framework (MOF) powders to degrade and destroy these
harmful compounds.
- Zirconium Asists in neutralizing toxic materials.
- MOF powders are unstable and incorporating them onto clothing has proven challenging.
The researchers developed a process were the a fine fabric (nonwoven) commonly used in reusable shopping bags and some clothing is exposed polypropylene, followed by another exposure to a to a mixture consisting of a zirconium-based MOF, a solvent and two binding agents.
Finally, to make sure that the active zirconia MOF-coating spread evenly across the cloth, they treated the fabrics with thin ALD layers of aluminum, titanium or zinc oxide. They tested this combination with dimethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate (DMNP), a relatively harmless molecule that has similar reactivity as sarin, soman and other nerve agents.
They found that the MOF-treated cloths deactivated DMNP (a Sarin like compound) in less than 5 minutes, suggesting this process is a viable means to create improved protective clothing.
References:
American Chemical Society. "New fabric coating could thwart chemical weapons, save lives." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 June 2017. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170607123930.htm.
Dennis T. Lee, Junjie Zhao, Gregory W. Peterson, Gregory N. Parsons. Catalytic “MOF-Cloth” Formed via Directed Supramolecular Assembly of UiO-66-NH2 Crystals on Atomic Layer Deposition-Coated Textiles for Rapid Degradation of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants. Chemistry of Materials, 2017; DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00949
No comments:
Post a Comment