Application of Natural Fiber Welding to Create MOF-modified Textiles

Natural fiber welding provides a unique strategy to impregnate fibers, threads, and fabrics with nanostructure materials such as MOFs. The procedure utilizes ionic liquids to slightly dissolve cellulosic structure of the material, making it loose and mobile. Then water is used to remove the ionic liquid, and upon the removal of the ionic liquid, the cellulose structures are comingled and bind to each other forming a natural fiber (cotton) weld. If a nanostructure material is added during the initial exposure and removal of the ionic liquid, then the material becomes entrapped in the welded cellulose as well. We propose to utilize this process to fiber-weld MOFs to textiles. Specifically, UiO-66-NH2 can be applied to the material before welding. Upon removal of the ionic liquid, the MOF will become entrained in the fiber-weld and because the cellulose is a porous fiber, available for reactivity. Slight variations of this process will also be examined including placing the MOF in the ionic liquid weld solution. The process has been specifically selected based on knowledge about the current capabilities in most textiles miles, which require a process that utilizes existing roll to roll infrastructure of vats of solution and heat.