Chemical and Biological Protection and Detection in Fabrics for Protective Clothing

Abstract

Military, firefighter, law enforcement, and medical personnel require high-level protection when dealing with chemical and biological threats in many environments ranging from combat to urban, agricultural, and industrial. Current protective clothing is based on full barrier protection, such as hazardous materials (HAZMAT) suits, or permeable adsorptive protective overgarments, such as those used by the U.S. military. New protective garment systems are envisioned that contain novel features, such as the capability to selectively block toxic chemicals, to chemically destroy toxic materials that contact the fabric, and to detect hazardous agents on the surface of the fabric. New technologies being built into advanced fabrics for enhanced chemical and biological protection include selectively permeable membranes, reactive nanoparticles, reactive nanofibers, biocidal fabric treatments, and conductive-polymer indicators on optical fibers.

Recent Developments and Needs in Materials Used for Personal Protective Equipment and Their Testing

“…The current technology for protection against chemicals, liquids and gases, is based on two approaches [30]. In one of them a full barrier protection is ensured by impermeable filmlaminated fabrics, e.g., in fully encapsulated HAZMAT suits.…”

“…Sol-gel derived carbon xerogel coated on cotton and plasma-treated polypropylene fabrics are also proposed for protection against volatile organic compounds [32]. Three new orientations of research for protective clothing against chemicals are currently being investigated [30]: selective blocking of toxic chemicals, chemical destruction of toxic materials that contact the fabric and detection of hazardous agents. Selective permeability is based on the principle of allowing the permeation of water vapor molecules while blocking larger organic ones as illustrated in Figure 2 [33].…”

“…The great expectations associated with nanotechnologies have led, e.g., to the founding of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies 7 in Figure 2. Principle of the selective permeability membrane in 3-layer protective clothing [30]. In terms of potential applications, nanocomposite fibers including nanoparticles or carbon nanotubes have displayed increased electric and mechanical properties [37].…”

Novel Materials and Applications of Electronic Noses and Tongues

“…For example, novel nanomanufacturing processes such as electrospinning 28 produce selfstanding pure or composite material nanostructures (membranes) with high surface areas for enhanced chemical attachment of analyte species and biocatalytic processes that are suitable for on-line monitoring and/or advanced power systems (e.g. bio-fuel cells).…”

An Effective Surface Modification of Polyester Fabrics for Improving the Interfacial Deposition of Polypyrrole Layer

“…Electroconductive polyester fibers have received increasing attention over the last few years, because of their potential applications in electromagnetic shielding clothing [3], medical therapeutics devices [4], supercapacitors [5,6], chemical and biological sensors [7][8][9][10]. Therefore, it is desirable to synthesize conductive polypyrrole (PPy) as thin layers on the PET fabrics by chemical method or by electrochemical method [11][12][13].…”