Photocatalytic decontamination of sulfur mustard using photo- crosslinkable hydrogel films containing a phthalocyanine derivative
Gabriela Toader 1,2 , Aurel Diacon 2,‡ , Edina Rusen 2 , Alice Podaru 1,2 , Raluca Elena Ginghina 3 , Adriana Elena Bratu 3 , Traian Rotariu 1
1 Military Technical Academy ‘Ferdinand I’, Romania, 2 Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnologies, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania, 3 Research and Innovation Center for CBRN Defense and Ecology, Romania ‡Shared co-first authorship, equally contributed to this study This study aimed to develop novel photo-crosslinkable hydrogels designed for the entrapment and neutralization of chemical warfare agents and their degradation products [1]. UV-curable hydrogel films with an interpenetrated network structure were synthesized by co-polymerization of N -vinyl pyrrolidone with three different co-monomers (acrylic acid, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate or 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol. N,N'- methylene bisacrylamide served as a crosslinker and 2-hydroxy-4’-(2-hydroxyetoxy)- 2-methylpropiphenone as the photoinitiator. Zinc(II)2,9,16,23-tetra(carboxy)phthalocyanine was introduced in these formulations as a photocatalyst to enhance the degradation process of sulfur mustard [2]. The obtained hydrogels were investigated using a variety of analytical tools (SEM, FT-IR, shear, tensile, and compression tests), and equilibrium swelling survey. The capacity of phthalocyanine-containing hydrogels for entrapping and degrading sulfur mustard chemical warfare agent by photocatalysis was demonstrated by GC-MS monitored investigations which confirmed their suitability for decontamination purposes. The results obtained indicated that the phthalocyanine derivative improved the decontamination efficacy while also contributing to the improvement of the mechanical resistance of the hydrogel films. The persistent and potentially lethal blistering agent, mustard gas, was successfully neutralized and entrapped by the herein-reported photo-crosslinkable hydrogels. The decontamination kinetic studies revealed that after maintaining the above-described formulations in direct contact with sulfur mustard droplets for 30 minutes, a nearly complete neutralization (99.86%) of this toxic agent was assessed. Moreover, after exposure of the samples to a UV-light source, for an additional time interval of 30 minutes, the decontamination efficiency increased to 99.92%. References 1. Gabriela Toader, Raluca Elena Ginghina, Aurel Diacon, Edina Rusen, Adriana Elena Bratu, Alice Podaru, and Traian Rotariu, ACS Applied Polymer Materials(2023),5(1), 877-891,DOI: 10.1021/acsapm.2c01815 2. Marek Andrle, Vojtěch Trousil, Jiří Černý, Alena Štreblová, Radka Kořínková, Photodegradation of chemical warfare agents and their simulants using zinc phthalocyanine sulfonamide in solutions and embedded in a polymer matrix, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry (2023), 435,114281, DOI: 10.1016/j.jphotochem.2022.114281
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© The Author(s), 2023
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