Solvent-Free Air-Spray Deposition of a Metal–Organic Framework to Develop Fiber Web Composites

Metal–organic framework (MOF)-fiber composites integrate MOF’s tunable functionality with flexible fibrous matrices for applications in various areas, including water purification, filtration, gas adsorption, and sensing to catalysis. Conventional techniques for the fabrication of MOF-fiber composites often involve the use of harsh organic solvents and complex time-intensive processing steps and can result in composites with poor MOF adhesion. In our work, we address these challenges by developing a simple and solvent-free air-spray coating method for the fabrication of MOF-fiber web composites. We employ bicomponent nonwovens as our fibrous substrate, consisting of a shell/core structure with polypropylene in the core and poly(ether- block -amide) in the shell. MOF particles, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) and UiO-66-NH 2, are spray-coated onto a nonwoven fabric using compressed air in