Hot Press Synthesis of MOF/Textile Composites for Nerve Agent Detoxification

Chemical nerve agents employed in warfare can induce paralysis and death within minutes of exposure. Zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), such as UiO-66-NH₂, show promise for the fast and efficient decontamination of nerve agents, which motivates their incorporation into textiles as protective layers. Few scalable methods to produce MOF/textile composites for personal protective applications have been developed; however, they mainly require the use of toxic and flammable solvents. Here, we describe a scalable, single-step method to synthesize UiO-66-NH₂on cotton fabrics by hot pressing the monomers onto the fabric samples. The use of a preformed hexanuclear zirconium benzoate cluster with 1,8-bis(dimethylamine)naphthalene as a non-nucleophilic base improved the quality of MOFs synthesized from the hot press method, as determined by an increase in their surface area and crystallinity. Preactivation of the cotton fabric with carboxylic acids provided UiO-66-NH₂/cotton composites of high MOF loadings with homogeneous coverage, which demonstrated efficient decontamination of a nerve agent simulant, dimethyl-4-nitrophenyl phosphate (DMNP).