Researchers from the City College of New York, led by the chemical engineer and Fulbright Scholar Teresa J. Bandosz, have developed smart textiles that are said to be able to rapidly detect and neutralise nerve gas.

The fabric consists of a cotton support modified with Cu-BTC MOF/oxidised graphitic carbon nitride composites. The latter were developed in the lab previously and tested as nerve agent detoxification media and colorimetric detectors.

Combining Cu-BTC and g-C3N4-ox resulted in a nanocomposite (MOFgCNox) of heterogeneous porosity and chemistry. Upon the deposition of MOFgCNox onto cotton textiles, a stable fabric was obtained, with supreme photocatalytic detoxification ability towards the nerve gas surrogate, dimethyl chlorophosphate.

The detoxification process was accompanied by a visible and gradual colour change, which Ms Bandosz said can be used for the selective detection of chemical warfare agents and for monitoring their penetration inside a protective layer.

“These smart textiles adsorbed almost 7g of CWA surrogate/its detoxification products per gram of Cu. The superior performance was linked to the high dispersion of the MOF crystals on the fibres, and a specific texture promoting the availability of the active copper centresshe said.

Her research team included Dimitrios A. Giannakoudakis, a PhD student; Yuping Hu, visiting scientist from China; and postdoctoral research associate, Marc Florent.  Their study appears in the journal Nanoscale Horizons.

Bandosz received a 2016-2017 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award for her work. She did research at the University of Malaga in Spain to help alleviate global warming and solve energy problems.

www.ccny.cuny.edu