Solar-thermally enhanced catalytic hydrolysis of chemical warfare agent simulant with UiO-66-NCS decorated reduced graphene oxide aerogels

Abstract

As chemical warfare agent (CWA) is one of deadly chemicals with strong toxicity and fast action, it is imperative to develop catalytic protective materials that can quickly adsorb and efficiently detoxify CWAs. Herein, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) aerogels are decorated with UiO-66-NCS metal–organic framework with high catalytic activity by in situ growing UiO-66-NH2 inside the RGO hydrogels, converting the UiO-66-NH2 to more active UiO-66-NCS, and freeze-drying for realizing solar-thermally enhanced catalytic hydrolysis of dimethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate (DMNP), a chemical warfare agent simulant. Compared with UiO-66-NH2, the UiO-66-NCS is more efficient in catalytically hydrolyzing DMNP with a 30 % accelerated half-life, and the in situ decoration of the RGO aerogel with UiO-66-NCS further improves the catalytic hydrolysis efficiency because of the more exposed active sites of the UiO-66-NCS. Furthermore, the excellent solar-thermal conversion effect of the RGO porous substrate can rapidly generate heat and transfer it to the UiO-66-NCS catalyst, thereby promoting the catalytic activity of the catalyst. The UiO-66-NCS decorated RGO aerogel exhibits a great detoxification efficiency of DMNP under simulated solar light irradiation with a turnover frequency of as high as 0.0531 s−1, ∼2.3 times higher than that under room light, and 1.5 times better than that of UiO-66-NCS powder. The solar-thermally enhanced catalytic hydrolysis of DMNP with the UiO-66-NCS decorated RGO aerogel is demonstrated by the quick detoxification of CWA simulant with great recyclability.