Modification of surfaces with nucleophilic polymers enables the creation of self-decontaminating materials (SDM), granting them powerful reactive and catalytic properties. We present a series of heterogeneously immobilized copolymers for targeting a variety of chemical threats, especially chemical warfare agents (CWA), and show both chemical characterization and dynamic vapor sorption results.
1 Polymers with nucleophilic pyrrolidinopyridine (Pyr) and primary amino (vinylamine, VAm) groups were prepared by free-radical copolymerization of
N,
N-diallylpyridin-4-amine (DAAP) and
N-vinylformamide (NVF), resulting in copolymers of poly(DAAP-
co-VAm-
co-NVF) which were then immobilized fibers by spray-coating and covalent treatment. Rayon fibers modified by poly(DAAP-
co-VAm-
co-NVF) were used for the sorption of dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), in the presence of moisture using dynamic vapor sorption technique. These fibers modified with poly(DAAP-
co-VAm-
co-NVF) were found to facilitate hydrolysis of the sorbed DMMP in the presence of moisture. These were further tested using a CWA simulant diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) in aqueous media at pH 8.7, and were shown to facilitate hydrolysis of DFP with an order-of-magnitude faster kinetics. The deposition method and catalytic properties are expected to be of great potential for implementation in various industries, and to provide a novel route for the creation of reactive-sorption materials.
References
(1) Bromberg, L.; Su, X.; Martis, V.; Zhang, Y. F.; Hatton, T. A. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2016, 8, 17555.
