Decontamination Assurance Spray

There are many products that can identify chemical weapons. They range in complexity from simple colorimetric chemical test strips or gas tubes, to more complex multi-step test kits, to intricate arrays of gas chromatographs and mass spectrometers. None of the products is specifically designed to illustrate the presence of chemicals on surfaces or have use as a decontamination assurance method. The proposed decontamination assurance spray will benefit end-users in the homeland security and military communities as a dispersible sensing technology that validates remediation of critical resources after a chemical event. The proposed technology has an extremely low logistical burden and can be easily used by first responders. It is based on our patented biocatalytic polymer synthesis and sensing technologies. It will retain attributes of the present nerve agent sensor, which detects nerve agent contamination using two enzyme reactions in dynamic equilibrium with each other. The existing sensor performs well, with response times of seconds, sensitivity on the order of parts per billion, and great resistance toward interference. The sensor outperforms any conventional technology for nerve agent detection with its ease of use, interference resistance, broad-based compatibility with surfaces, liquids, and gases, and low cost.