Chemical warfare agents (CWAs) can spread rapidly and will contaminate their surroundings if left unchecked. To those who are exposed to CWAs, reusable protective equipment would be critical for their safety. It is hypothesized that the use of polymer-bound metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can catalyze the breakdown of sulfur mustard, a deadly CWA. The MOF produces singlet oxygen which oxidizes sulfur mustard upon exposure to UV light and repeatedly undergoes this reaction when embedded into a polymer. Each MOF contains organic linkers which can be modified, resulting in differing yields of singlet oxygen. To determine the amount of singlet oxygen produced, the organic linkers of the MOFs were examined for their singlet oxygen quantum yield. It was found that organic linkers containing a meta chlorine group to the benzoic acid and ethyl benzoate derivatives produced the largest amount of singlet oxygen. Each organic linker produced varying yields of singlet oxygen due to different functional groups and their locations, the results for each will be presented.

Spectral analysis of MOFs for decontamination of chemical warfare agents

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