Engineered Beads for Chem-Bio Defense (CBD) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

The current Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology (JSLIST) chemical protective ensemble for the United States military is nearing the end of its mission life, requiring the development of new personal protective equipment (PPE) suits for all of the Armed Services. While new suit designs have addressed many design drawbacks of the JSLIST MOPP suits such as thermal stress and flexibility, they still lack the ability to detoxify chemical warfare agents (CWAs), further reducing the risk of incidental exposure to the warfighter. Current suits include adsorbent technology based on activated carbon microspheres (beads) that adsorb but do not detoxify CWAs and therefore do not fully mitigate the chemical hazard to personnel. Improved adsorbents with additional detoxification capabilities are sought to improve future suit designs. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are a relatively new class of materials that can be designed with extremely high surface areas, high gas adsorption capacities, and tunable chemistry. Some MOFs have been demonstrated to provide excellent detoxification mechanisms towards CWAs and other toxic industrial chemicals (TICs); however, the powdery crystalline physical characteristics of most MOFs make them difficult to incorporate into substrates such as fabrics, textiles, or filter cartridges without blocking their active pores and thereby quenching the chemical activity of the material for decontamination purposes. During Phase I of this SBIR program, Tetramer developed microbeads containing high loading levels of MOFs with exceptional decontamination performance. During Phase II, microbead methods were successfully developed and optimized for lab-scale production with good control over bead size and size distribution. Tetramer prepared ad-hoc fabric swatches and exhibited excellent decontamination performance against CWAs and TICs. The proposed Phase II Sequential research is critical to enabling the successful transition of the detoxifying MOF beads to the warfighter and industrial user in CBRN PPE. Tetramer will develop systems to increase the production rate of microbeads, establish a robust supply chain and quality control program, and enhance the commercial market for the beads through engagement with potential customers in a range of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) PPE. As a result of this Phase IIS effort, Tetramer’s MOF microbeads will provide a disruptive enhancement in chemical and biological protection capabilities for U.S. warfighters and industrial safety personnel world-wide.