Self-Detoxifying, Disposable Protective Garments

There are many types of limited use or disposable protective garments and apparel designed to inhibit/retard the passage of hazardous liquids and biological contaminates through the garment to the wearer. The current state-of-the-art Chem-Bio protective suits contain carbon-beads layered into textile materials which adsorb toxic liquids and vapors. However, activated carbon imparts only partial protection against chemical agents through physical entrapment within its pores (without neutralization) and adsorbed toxics are known to off-gas. This Phase I SBIR proposal describes the development of a multilayered protective fabric that will offer a comprehensive combination of self-decontamination, barrier protection, and comfort. The self-decontamination property of the proposed fabric will be achieved by immobilizing reactive nanoparticles onto a commercially available material commonly used in disposable garments. Preliminary results included in this proposal demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. The reactive fabric material will be laminated to other commercially available materials which will impart barrier protection and wearer comfort properties to the final product. The Phase I research also describes the evaluation of the multilayered fabric including toxic chemical surrogate degradation and material durability testing. Phase II development of the proposed technology will include live agent testing.