Sustainable and Highly Reactive Nerve-Agent Simulant Detoxification: Effective Amine Buffers for Metal–Organic Framework Catalysts

Abstract

The appropriate treatment of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) is essential because of their toxicity and lethality. Metal–organic framework (MOF) catalysts, with the assistance of a volatile small molecule buffer, have been reported to be effective for the destruction of CWAs. However, employing small molecular volatile buffers not only contaminates the catalysts and causes them to lose their activity but also prevents their practical application. In this study, we report a novel polymeric buffer that can enhance the catalytic ability of MOFs without contamination of the catalyst. The macromolecular chain can provide non-flowability to buffer, as well as inhibit catalyst contamination by steric hindrance while maintaining activity as a buffer. The optimized polymer buffer [P(MEMA)43] can effectively degrade nerve-agent simulants (7.7 min of t1/2) in the presence of UiO-66 and preserve its catalytic activity by more than 90% even after three cycles. In addition, the polymeric composite with MOFs coated on a cotton substrate shows excellent detoxification performance in humidified conditions (RH 99%). This fundamental study on a sustainable CWA destruction catalytic system is anticipated to be promising for developing chemical protective textiles against CWAs.