MOFs in common powder form are difficult to integrate into functional devices and composite materials. Surface-immobilized MOF thin films on flexible polymer fibers can potentially overcome the inherent limitation of powders, and simplify deployment and expand utilization for gas filtration, separation, catalysis and biomedical applications. Our group has developed a platform technology that addresses the critical challenges for MOF integration on fibers. Using atomic layer deposition (ALD), we formed well-defined conformal nanoscale metal oxides on fiber substrates that promote heterogeneous MOF nucleation and growth. We found that ALD TiO2 enables the solvothermal formation of highly conformal Zr-based UiO-66, UiO-66-NH2 and UiO-67 MOF thin films on polypropylene and nylon fibers. Growth uniformity, MOF mass loading, surface adhesion, robustness and overall BET surface were all significantly enhanced with ALD nucleation layers. We find the approach is broadly extendable to other MOF systems, including HKUST-1, MOF-74, MIL-96 and others. HKUST-1 functionalized polypropylene nonwoven fabrics exhibit large adsorption capacity for toxic industrial chemicals including NH3 and H2S. UiO MOF thin films on ALD-coated nylon-6 nanofibers were applied for catalytic degradation of chemical warfare agents. Half-lives of CWA simulant DMNP are less than 8 min with UiO-66-NH2 and UiO-67 thin films on nylon nanofibers, while half-lives of GD are all less than 4 min with our MOF-nanofiber catalysts. These results all demonstrate the excellent adsorption and catalytic performance of our MOF-functionalized fibers. Studies describing the basic nucleation reactions during MOF nucleation will be described, including the role of metal oxide composition on MOF nucleation behavior.

Robust surface-anchored UiO-66-based metal-organic-framework films on polymer fibers for rapid hydrolysis of chemical agents

254th National Meeting (2017)

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