Instantaneous hydrolysis of nerve-agent simulants with a six-connected zirconium-based metal-organic framework

Su-Young Moon; Yangyang Liu; Joseph T Hupp; Omar K Farha

doi:10.1002/anie.201502155

Instantaneous hydrolysis of nerve-agent simulants with a six-connected zirconium-based metal-organic framework

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Jun 1;54(23):6795-9. doi: 10.1002/anie.201502155. Epub 2015 May 7.

Authors

Su-Young Moon¹, Yangyang Liu¹, Joseph T Hupp², Omar K Farha^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of chemistry Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3113 (USA).
² Department of chemistry Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3113 (USA). j-hupp@northwestern.edu.
³ Department of chemistry Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3113 (USA). o-farha@northwestern.edu.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). o-farha@northwestern.edu.

PMID: 25951192
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201502155

Abstract

A nerve-agent simulant based on a phosphate ester is hydrolyzed using a MOF-based catalyst. Suspensions of MOF-808 (6-connected), a material featuring 6-connected zirconium nodes, display the highest hydrolysis rates among all MOFs that have been reported to date. A plug-flow reactor was also prepared with MOF-808 (6-connected) as the active layer. Deployed in a simple filtration scheme, the reactor displayed high hydrolysis efficiency and reusability.

Keywords: MOF plug-flow reactor; heterogeneous catalysis; hydrolysis; metal-organic frameworks; nerve agents.