#nerve agents

About his little deadly toys...

Transtation: 1st pic: CHeavy: Whatta f*ck is this, doc? That's where you're dumping all our med budget? 2 pic: CMedic: It'f 'Safrin', I folfd you. CHeavy: Wha. CHeavy: Where did you even get that shit?

3rd pic: CMedic: Oh, it's pretty easy. My former coworkers had some lying in storage, so I decided that leftovers should be used wisely. Cmedic: ...And we made a ransom deal. ✨It was a hell of a bargain✨

4th pic: CMedic: And by saying like that, you remind me of my ex-boss. Pretty harsh. Don't you believe in our future success? CHeavy: Uh...

Counter Agent

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Nerve agents are poisons that block signals through the nervous system to the rest of the body, often leading to permanent damage or death. Their use as weapons has declined since World War II, but unfortunately protection is still required, and this newly-created chemical structure may hold the key. A metal-organic framework (MOF) made from a lattice of organic threads holds tiny lumps, or nodes, of zirconium – creating round 'pores' that capture molecules of nerve agents like VX. The pores also have room for water collected from the atmosphere, an essential ingredient in hydrolysis reactions which break down the poison particles. Weaving MOFs into materials used to make protective suits or masks will hopefully pit science against science to protect human lives from these horrible manmade chemicals.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Zhijie Chen and colleagues

Department of Chemistry and International Institute for Nanotechnology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

Image copyright held by the Journal of the American Chemical Society

Research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, December 2019

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