posted on 2021-09-30, 14:46authored byYuk Ha Cheung, Kaikai Ma, Hans C. van Leeuwen, Megan C. Wasson, Xingjie Wang, Karam B. Idrees, Wei Gong, Ran Cao, John J. Mahle, Timur Islamoglu, Gregory W. Peterson, Martijn C. de Koning, John H. Xin, Omar K. Farha
The
most recent global health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak
and the alarming use of chemical warfare agents highlight the necessity
to produce efficient protective clothing and masks against biohazard
and chemical threats. However, the development of a multifunctional
protective textile is still behind to supply adequate protection for
the public. To tackle this challenge, we designed multifunctional
and regenerable N-chlorine based biocidal and detoxifying textiles
using a robust zirconium metal–organic framework (MOF), UiO-66-NH2, as a chlorine carrier which can be easily coated on textile
fibers. A chlorine bleaching converted the amine groups located on
the MOF linker to active N-chlorine structures. The fibrous composite
exhibited rapid biocidal activity against both Gram-negative bacteria
(E. coli) and Gram-positive bacteria (S.
aureus) with up to a 7 log reduction within 5 min for each
strain as well as a 5 log reduction of SARS-CoV-2 within 15 min. Moreover,
the active chlorine loaded MOF/fiber composite selectively and rapidly
degraded sulfur mustard and its chemical simulant 2-chloroethyl ethyl
sulfide (CEES) with half-lives less than 3 minutes. The versatile
MOF-based fibrous composite designed here has the potential to serve
as protective cloth against both biological and chemical threats.