The use of hydrofluoroether liquid wetted wipes for the decontamination of sensitive equipment is attracting great interest. Contacting the contaminated equipment with such wipes results in the rapid removal of surface contaminants. Because adsorption from the liquid phase involves larger molecules than those found in the gas phase, the pores in the activated carbon needed to capture contaminants require pores with diameters above the micropore range (diameters <2 nm). In this work, the effects of the specific surface area (900-1300 m 2 /g), the total pore volume (0.40-0.70 cm 3 /g), and the pore size distribution (mean pore diameter ranged from <0.1 to 2.9 nm) of commercially available activated carbon fabrics (ACF) on the removal of 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide, a chemical warfare agent (CWA) simulant, from solution in hydrofluoroethers were examined. The highest adsorption loadings were obtained with the ACF with a mean pore diameter of 2.9 nm.

This experiment established the effective lifetime of an activated carbon fiber felt adsorption column in which the ends are covered with an impermeable plastic film is able to effectively remove Krytox 157 surfactant from PF-5070. It was shown that the column effectively removed 90% of the Krytox 157 from five-adsorber volumes (40 L) of 0.4% Krytox 157FS solution, pumped at one adsorber volume every hour. Without these end sheets of polyethylene, the effective lifetime is reduced to approximately two adsorber volumes (16 L).

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