Personal protective equipmentClothing that guards against chemical warfare agents
Recent reports of chemical weapons attacks in the Middle East underscore the need for new ways to guard against their toxic effects. Scientists report that a new hydrogel coating that neutralizes both mustard gas and nerve agent VX. It could someday be applied to materials such as clothing and paint.
Recent reports of chemical weapons attacks in the Middle East underscore the need for new ways to guard against their toxic effects. Toward that end, scientists report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces a new hydrogel coating that neutralizes both mustard gas and nerve agent VX. It could someday be applied to materials such as clothing and paint.
Toxic chemicals have been used as weapons since ancient times, but it was not until the First World War that they were released in large-scale attacks. Despite international efforts to ban them, chemical warfare agents (CWA) are still deployed. ACS notes that scientists have developed some substances which can neutralize CWAs, but they lose their effectiveness when incorporated into practical coatings such as paint. Lev Bromberg, a research scientist in T. Alan Hatton’s group, and other colleagues wanted to come up with a better solution.
The researchers developed hydrogel materials that completely broke down the nerve gas VX — one of the most dangerous and persistent CWAs — in less than twenty minutes. The materials also quickly degraded mustard gas and soman, a nerve agent that was reportedly used in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. And, the researchers say, the hydrogels could be applied to fabrics or other materials without losing their ability to neutralize CWAs.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency funded the research
— Read more in Lev Bromberg et al., “Nucleophilic Polymers and Gels in Hydrolytic Degradation of Chemical Warfare Agents,” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Article ASAP (11 September 2015) (DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b06905)
