Porphyrinic Silver Cluster Assembled Material for Simultaneous Capture and Photocatalysis of Mustard-Gas Simulant.

Silver cluster-assembled materials (SCAMs), by virtue of their tunable structure, accessible surface area and excellent stability, hold great promise as highly efficient catalysts. Herein, we report a new SCAM [Ag12(StBu)6(CF3COO)3(TPyP)]n (denoted as Ag12TPyP) composed of a Ag12 chalcogenolate cluster core stabilized by porphyrinic ligands. Ag12TPyP showed superior sulfur mustard simulant (2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide, CEES) degradation efficiency and achieved a half lifetime (t1/2) of 1.5 min with 100% selectivity. The experimental results demonstrated that synergistic effects between the silver cluster and photosensitizer ligand promote the efficiency of the generation of singlet oxygen (1O2), which accelerates the decontamination rate. Additionally, benefiting from strong affinity between the silver cluster and CEES, Ag12TPyP exhibits a CEES uptake of 74.2 mg g-1. This work demonstrates that SCAMs offer a new route to the rational design of novel materials for the detoxification of mustard gas.