A MOF-doped molecularly imprinted polymer/MOF hybrid gel incorporating with pH-buffering sodium acrylate for practical detoxification of organophosphorus nerve agents

The fatal toxicity of organophosphorus nerve agents (ONAs) and the realistic condition of chemical attack occurring place trigger the urgent need to develop catalyst materials with degrading ability under the natural environment without bulk water and bases. Here, we strategically design a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)/MOF hybrid catalyst material by integrating enzyme-mimic MIP with Zr-MOF UiO-66-NH2 which demonstrate promising catalytic performance for degradation of ONAs. Furthermore, sodium acrylate functions as a hydrophilic and alkaline functional unit together with pyridine-amidoxime based functional monomers (PAAO) to copolymerize into molecularly imprinted polymeric network. The basic sodium carboxylate groups were installed near the active sites to provide appropriate alkaline microenvironment, non-bulk water and acid buffer capacity for the catalysis in pure water. The resultant MIP/MOF composite catalyst demonstrate outstanding catalytic activities in both liquid and solid phase hydrolysis of ONAs. Specifically, the half-life of liquid phase hydrolysis catalyzed by MIP/UiO-66-NH2-0.5 achieves 9.4 min for diethyl-4-nitrophenyl phosphate (DENP) and 10 min for dimethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate (DMNP), and solid-state hydrolysis present rapid degradation efficiency with a half-life of 28.6 min. In addition, composite catalyst MIP-Ag/UiO-66-NH2-0.5 that retains substrate selectivity of MIP, enables the simultaneous degradation of two types of organophosphorus substrates (phosphate and thiophosphate) by MIP and MOF in a synergistic way. Summarily, this work displays promising potential of MIP/MOF hybrid enzyme-like catalyst as effective and practical material for the practical protection and detoxification of organophosphorus nerve agents.