Decontamination Of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants Catalyzed By Amphiphilic Polyoxoniobates In Emulsion

Nerve agents and sulfur mustard gas are two kinds of representative chemical warfare agents（CWAs）commonly used in war and terrorist attacks.Recently,the decontamination of nerve agents,sulfur mustard and their simulants has been mainly achieved via hydrolytic or oxidative catalysis approaches using Zr-containing metal organic frameworks,metal oxides,and polyoxometalates.Amphiphilic polyoxoniobates[C_nH_2n+1N（CH₃）₃]₇HNb₆O₁₉（for compound 1,n=14;for compound 2,n=16;and for compound 3,n=18）were generally prepared by the electrostatic combination of PONb anions with quaternary ammoniums and compound 1-3have been characterized by FT-IR,¹H NMR,¹³C NMR,TGA and elemental analysis.The emulsion systems containing compound 1-3 were first used for the decontamination of CWAs simulants.In this thesis,the influences of quaternary ammonium cations,polyanions,and amount of catalyst on the degradation of sulfur mustard simulant,2-chloroethylethyl sulfide（CEES）,have been systematically investigated.The experimental results show that the emulsion of compound 3 can not only oxidize CEES to non-toxic sulfoxide product within 20 minutes,in the presence of near stoichiometric amount of H₂O₂（3%）,but also hydrolyze the nerve agent simulant,diethyl cyanophosphate（DECP）,completely.It is worth mentioning that the compound 3 can be separated easily by centrifugation and reused.In addition,its activity is maintained after even five cycles.The mechanism of the amphiphilic PONbs in emulsion system was further investigated.