Improved M8 Chemical Agent Detector Paper for Facilities Monitoring

The objective of this Phase II project is to design, build, and test a prototype self reporting detection system that utilizes a ruggedized version of M8 chemical agent detection paper for detecting and reporting potential liquid chemical warfare attacks at fixed military sites and installations. During Phase I of this project, a robust, superhydrophobic and oleophilic coating was successfully developed, applied and tested on M8 paper. These tests demonstrated that this ruggedized and improved version of M8 detection strips was able to aggressively repel water and dirt, while still allowing chemical warfare agents to rapidly penetrate the coating and produce the expected color changes on the underlying paper. The proposed detection system for Phase II work will exploit these new capabilities, and will primarily involve the construction and testing of an automated detection system network containing transduction hardware and software capable of reading and self reporting color changes on the coated M8 test strips due to CWA interactions. The self reporting detection system network will be able to continuously monitor military facilities for CWA attacks and report positive alarms to military personnel in real time, thereby facilitating interoperability with integrated base defense and mobile force protection needs.