The zirconium based MOF, UiO-66, has shown great potential for military application in protective clothing and chemical clean up due to its high porosity, water stability and catalytic activity towards dangerous chemical warfare agents (CWAs). Extensive studies have been done with incorporating the UiO-66 MOF into a functional form such as in fabrics. Functionalization of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofiber mats with UiO-66-NH2 MOF have shown high catalytic activity towards CWAs. In fact, the catalytic activity of composite fibers was found to be faster than the pure MOF due to diffusion limitation of the powder. Another study showed when incorporating UiO-66 into a Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanofibers with titanium tetrahydroxide (Ti(OH)4) the catalytic activity of the material was enhanced compared to the PMMA/UiO-66 fibers without Ti(OH)4. The improved catalytic activity was due to the acidic and basic properties of the Ti(OH)4. In this work, the catalytic activity of PVDF/Ti(OH)4/UiO-66 composite fibers towards CWAs was further improved by addition of triethanolamine (TEA) base to assist in removal of the acid by-products of the reaction. The effect of replacing Ti(OH)4 with zirconium hydroxide (Zr(OH)4) was also studied. Incorporation of Zr(OH)4 showed improved catalytic activity for degradation of DMNP simulant over Ti(OH)4 samples with a half-life of 58 minutes. TEA incorporated samples did not show improved activity towards DMNP simulant in buffer but did show enhanced activity towards di-iso-propyl fluorophosphate (DFP) simulant. Finally, preliminary experiments have shown fast degradation of Soman nerve agent using PVDF/Ti(OH)4/UiO-66 fibers with a half-life of 35 minutes.

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/UiO-66 polymer composite fibers with enhanced catalytic activity towards chemical agents

255th National Meeting (2018)

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