CM6- The wonders of MOF: Mo-Filter for air pollution

Overview

Background: Nowadays, Lebanon is considered one of the most pollutant countries worldwide due to the horrible increase in vehicles, power stations, and industries which release particulate matter (PM 2.5) that can pass through the respiratory system into the body due to the its small size and penetration to the respiratory and cardiovascular system, thus affecting the immune system.

Aim: The aim of this work was to use a chemical material called metal organic framework (MOF) for filtering PM 2.5 in the air and study its effectiveness with respect to other masks as N95, FFP1, surgical, cotton, and textile.

Methods: UIO-66(NH)2, which falls under the highly innovative porous materials that can be used as gas storage, sensor design biodiesel catalysis and last but not least MOFiltres, was synthesized. The synthesis took 3 weeks. The MOF was tested by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) to ensure its efficacy and properties; then we undergone electrospinning of the MOF (UIO_66NH2/PAN) solution with 20% loading. We tested the effectiveness of the MOF as a MOF filter muzzle by a very simple experiment consisting of two clean bottles that were cut from the bottom to insert air quality detectors; the two bottles were connected by the masks tested including a mask with the MOFilter. The detector read the PM 2.5 entering and that adsorbed by the MOFilter and the other masks to be tested to compare the former’s effectiveness with other market masks such as: surgical, N95, FFP1, cotton and textile.

Results: The MOFilter mask showed 86% effectiveness, whereas N95, surgical, and FFP1 showed 95% effectiveness; on the other hand, textile and cotton masks showed zero effectiveness. The results were tested by drawing graphs showing the variation in PM 2.5 among the different masks and that of MOFilter.

Conclusion: The surgical, N95, and FFP1 masks were the most effective followed by cotton MOF mask. However, the worst masks were textile and cotton masks. Despite the fact that cotton MOF masks did not show the best results amongst all, it was able to filter a large amount of PM 2.5 taking into consideration with only 20% loading. The use of textile or cotton masks that is recommended by the government is not beneficial to filter air from pollutants as pm2.5, and probably not being able to decrease risk of being infected with viral infections including COVID 19.