Metal–Organic Framework Gels for Adsorption and Catalytic Detoxification of Chemical Warfare Agents: A Review

Abstract

Chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have brought great threats to human life and social stability, and it is critical to investigate protective materials. MOF (metal–organic framework) gels are a class with an extended MOF architecture that are mainly formed using metal–ligand coordination as an effective force to drive gelation, and these gels combine the unique characteristics of MOFs and organic gel materials. They have the advantages of a hierarchically porous structure, a large specific surface area, machinable block structures and rich metal active sites, which inherently meet the requirements for adsorption and catalytic detoxification of CWAs. A series of advances have been made in the adsorption and catalytic detoxification of MOF gels as chemical warfare agents; however, overall, they are still in their infancy. This review briefly introduces the latest advances in MOF gels, including pure MOF gels and MOF composite gels, and discusses the application of MOF gels in the adsorption and catalytic detoxification of CWAs. Meanwhile, the influence of microstructures (pore structures, metal active site, etc.) on the detoxification performance of protective materials is also discussed, which is of great significance in the exploration of high-efficiency protective materials. Finally, the review looks ahead to next priorities. Hopefully, this review can inspire more and more researchers to enrich the performance of MOF gels for applications in chemical protection and other purification and detoxification processes.

An Encyclopedic Compendium on Chemosensing Supramolecular Metal‐Organic Gels

“…The literature surrounding metalorganic gels or metallogels is extensive, reflecting the growing interest and advancements in this field. [4,5] Researchers have explored various aspects of metal-organic gel research, [6] covering topics such as supramolecular metallogels with steroidal functionalities, [7] anion or metal binding capabilities, [8] or metallogels based on europium(III) and terbium(III) metals, [9] design and applications of coordination-driven polymeric gels, [10] the transition from discrete metallogelators to coordination polymers, ways for converting metal-organic frameworks to gels, [11] the self-assembly of metal-organic complexes to create soft materials with diverse superstructures [12] and the recent developments [10,[13][14][15] in material science, [16,17] environmental, [18] defense, [19] electrochemistry [20] or bio-applications, [21,22] especially in the pharmaceutical field. [23] Although, each review with a different angle had a unique focus or emphasis.…”