(335f) Removal and Destruction of Toxic Chemicals Using a Range of Engineered MOF Polymer Beads

With their high availability and toxicity, both chemical warfare agents (CWAs) as well as the large number of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) continue to represent a significant level of risk. Current chemical-biological (CB) suits and toxic chemical masks use activated carbon as the primary protective barrier layer or adsorbent against CWAs and TICs. The carbon layer, although a good adsorbent and effective, does not act as a reactive layer and thus is rapidly consumed and must be disposed of after every potential exposure. The overall performance of this protective layer can be greatly improved by integrating a reactive component into the personal protective equipment (PPE). This mitigates the hazard and actively decomposes, or detoxifies, the wide range of CWAs and TICs that can be experienced by the user. A range of metal-organic framework (MOF) materials have shown great promise both as an effective adsorbent and, more importantly, as a rapid and efficient means of catalyzing the detoxification or destruction of harmful chemical agents. However, incorporation of the MOFs into PPE represents a significant challenge because of their inherently small, often submicron, size and tendency to be deactivated as they are fabricated into more practical larger active particles or beads.

Mainstream Engineering has successfully demonstrated a highly scalable and tunable process to produce high porosity-engineered MOF-polymer beads. This platform approach, applicable to various MOF materials, can control bead size down to 0.1 mm with high MOF loading, no loss of active MOF surface area, high stability, low-pressure drop, and no dusting. The process has enabled the production of tens of kilograms per day of highly reproducible MOF beads and beads from a wide range of MOFs. We will delve into the performance characteristics, capacity, and kinetics of these materials for adsorption and breakthrough of organic and inorganic vapors, as well as adsorption from aqueous solutions. We will also present on the mechanical characteristics and integration into protective clothing and filter cartridges.