Catalytic Coatings for Chemical Protection

The U.S. military must be prepared to operate in an environment contaminated by chemical warfare (CW) or biological warfare (BW) agents. Currently, chemically contaminated hardware is decontaminated either with the highly caustic and corrosive DS2 or with peroxide foam decontaminants. Either approach necessitates carrying sufficient decontaminant to forward bases, and therefore presents an additional logistics burden. Furthermore, even decontaminated items may retain some agent especially around seams, and in time the trapped agent may diffuse out of the coating (desorb), exposing soldiers to additional hazards and activating alarm systems. An ideal protective system would modify the surface of critical materials so that they offer protection from CW and BW agents at all times, with no additional operational or logistics burden. TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) proposes to develop a reactive coating to spontaneously detoxify chemical weapons under ambient conditions. In Phase II, we will select the most active and stable catalysts for both hydrolysis and oxidation of chemical agents, scale up their syntheses, and incorporate them into polyurethane coatings. These coatings will be tested to assure that the catalysts do not degrade the important properties of the coatings and to demonstrate the stability of the coating's chemical activity after accelerated weathering.