Development of liquid-polymer grafted wipes for improved surface sampling of chemical agents

The proposed research and development activities will determine the scientific, technical, and commercial feasibility of the use of solvent-free liquid polymer-grafted surface wipes as novel materials that more efficiently removes low volatility chemical agent contamination from porous and absorptive surfaces than current materials.. The polymers will be able to extend into pores and dissolve the chemical weapons into the polymer matrix so that when the wipe is pulled away from the surface they are removed efficiently and can subsequently be separated from the wipe by a solvent. A marked increase in the effectiveness and reproducibility of sampling and analysis of chemical agents on porous, absorptive materials is expected. The elimination of volatile organic solvents will reduce the environmental and potential health effects of using wipes to sample surfaces. In Phase I, the following tasks will be performed in order to demonstrate the utility of this novel approach for a wipe system for sampling chemical weapons on surfaces: (1) Fabrication of wipes (cloth, paper, and glass microfiber) with a variety of polymer chain derivatives (2) Confirmation that contaminants are not present in the wipes that will interfere with chemical analyses (3) Testing of the release of chemical weapon surrogates from wipes spiked with the surrogates (4) Testing of the wipes that pass Tasks 2 and 3 for overall efficiency of removal of chemical weapon surrogates from surfaces (uncoated and coated concrete, painted wallboard, unglazed ceramic tile, and brick) (5) Determination of sampling and analytical reproducibility (6) Determining the effects of storage