Multifunctional Textiles for Advanced Personal Protective Equipment

Luna Innovations is addressing the Department of Homeland Security need to develop novel textiles for uniforms that provide multi-threat protection for first responders. Since first responders enter situations with unknown threats, their uniforms must be able to protect from multiple different hazards. Novel multifunctional textile technologies are required to protect from fire, chemical warfare agents, blast, ballistic, or sharp object penetration. Each of these novel textile technologies are currently under development by Luna's team. This program will combine these technologies into a lightweight garment with low thermal stress that provides chemical and biological protection from omniphobic surfaces, antimicrobial treatments, and advanced seam sealing combined with proven fire and blast/ballistic protection. All of these technologies will be combined to produce a garment that will be both comfortable to wear, and protect against numerous unknown hazards. Phase I will result in a TRL 4 prototype textiles demonstrating chemical agent defense, flame retardancy, and ballistic/knife protection. Phase II will result in design and manufacture of prototype first responder uniforms with the above properties for independent evaluation.