Beijing Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic/Electrophotonic Conversion Materials, Key Laboratory of Cluster Science, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 100081, Beijing, China.
Nat Commun. 2019 May 16;10(1):2177. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10218-9.
Air filtration has become an essential need for passive pollution control. However, most of the commercial air purifiers rely on dense fibrous filters, which have good particulate matter (PM) removal capability but poor biocidal effect. Here we present the photocatalytic bactericidal properties of a series of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their potentials in air pollution control and personal protection. Specifically, a zinc-imidazolate MOF (ZIF-8) exhibits almost complete inactivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) (>99.9999% inactivation efficiency) in saline within 2 h of simulated solar irradiation. Mechanistic studies indicate that photoelectrons trapped at Zn centers within ZIF-8 via ligand to metal charge transfer (LMCT) are responsible for oxygen-reduction related reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, which is the dominant disinfection mechanism. Air filters fabricated from ZIF-8 show remarkable performance for integrated pollution control, with >99.99% photocatalytic killing efficiency against airborne bacteria in 30 min and 97% PM removal. This work may shed light on designing new porous solids with photocatalytic antibiotic capability for public health protection.
空气过滤已成为被动污染控制的基本需求。然而，大多数商业空气净化器依赖于密集的纤维过滤器，这些过滤器具有良好的颗粒物（PM）去除能力，但杀菌效果差。在这里，我们展示了一系列金属有机骨架（MOFs）的光催化杀菌性能及其在空气污染控制和个人防护中的潜力。具体来说，一种锌-咪唑 MOF（ZIF-8）在模拟太阳光照射 2 小时内，在盐水中几乎完全灭活大肠杆菌（E. coli）（>99.9999%的灭活效率）。机理研究表明，通过配体到金属电荷转移（LMCT）在 ZIF-8 中的 Zn 中心捕获的光电子负责与氧还原相关的活性氧（ROS）的产生，这是主要的杀菌机制。由 ZIF-8 制成的空气过滤器在综合污染控制方面表现出显著的性能，在 30 分钟内对空气中的细菌具有>99.99%的光催化杀灭效率，PM 去除率达到 97%。这项工作可能为设计具有光催化抗生素能力的新型多孔固体以保护公众健康提供了思路。
