Protective Fabrics: Metal-Organic Framework Textiles for Rapid Photocatalytic Sulfur Mustard Simulant Detoxification

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can catalyze toxic chemical decontamination, but new MOF materials and synthesis strategies are needed to improve performance, particularly in field-usable MOF-textile formats. This article reports for the first time the exceptional photocatalytic reactivity of Al-PMOF (Al-porphyrin-based MOF), composed of an earth-abundant metal-containing Al(OH)O-4 cluster bridged by H2TCPP (5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin) chromophores, against the toxic sulfur mustard simulant 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (CEES) under visible-light irradiation. Furthermore, Al-PMOF is strongly immobilized into polymeric fibers via well-controlled Al2O3 solid film conversion using dimethylformamide/water cosolvent. The approach enables a secure integration of conformal Al-PMOF films onto polymer fibers at a relatively low synthesis temperature (120 degrees C). In addition, on a per-unit mass of MOF basis, the surface-bound Al-PMOF films enable extremely rapid CEES detoxification turnover frequency, up to 170 mol(CEES)mol(chromophore)(-1)min(-1), more than 10-fold faster than the best MOF powders and 2-fold better than MOF films reported to date.