
Utilising nanofibres to enhance chemical and biological protection
By Laura Solomon
Nuclear chemical and biological protective clothing is used for functional performance purposes, rather than for design or decoration. This type of clothing is designed to be protective, permeable and disposable, for use in a chemical contaminated warfare environment. This type of clothing is essential for military personnel who in some situations require safeguarding from both chemical and biological threats. However, in many chemical and biological protective suits currently available on the market, there is often a trade-off between the simultaneous barrier protection of both chemical protection and biological protection, while also providing satisfactory durability and wearability of the garment. While there are very serious risks associated with chemical and biological threats, if the wearer finds the garment uncomfortable, this could also cause physical and mental risks, as well as a loss of user productivity. It should also be noted that in some cases, protective clothing found to be uncomfortable by the wearer will be worn incorrectly, causing risk to the wearer in a toxic environment [2]. Therefore, the goal should be to provide optimum protection while also providing protection that is lighter weight and more comfortable. Additionally, since there is a huge variety of chemical and biological threats, no single material can protect against them all. Therefore, the protective material must be carefully chosen with specific properties in mind to protect against that particular threat. Developing such highly protective materials is an ongoing technological challenge. Although more recently, there is now a requirement for chemical suits to provide biological protection with enhanced chemical adsorption, while also having a reduced weight than the currently available products. Nanofibres are incorporated into textile materials within a variety of applications to provide functionality at an extremely low mass density. This extremely small fibre provides textiles with unique properties including a high-specific surface area, interconnected pore structure, surface functionality and high porosity. It is due to these desirable properties that recently researchers are incorporating nanofibres within breathable protective fabrics to offer biological and chemical protection. However, there is an ongoing challenge to fabricate nanofibre webs with sufficient durability and structural integrity during high abrasion and flexing action, as well as fastness to laundering and washing. Chitosan is the sugar obtained from the hard outer skeleton of shellfish, including crab, lobster, shrimp as well as from fungi and is produced by the deacetylation of natural chitin sources. Chitosan is considered a biopolymer and an antimicrobial and biodegradable material, therefore electrospinning this material has great appeal. Activated carbon is a non-hazardous, highly porous absorbent material with a large surface area. Due to its exceptional adsorption potential, it is commonly used to remove volatile organic compounds and contaminants from liquids and gasses. In particular, researchers claim that activated carbon spheres exhibit impressive physical properties, such as wear resistance, mechanical strength, good adsorption performance, purity, low ash content, smooth surface, good fluidity, good packaging, low-pressure drop, high bulk density, high micropore volume and tuneable pore size distribution. Typically, activated carbon exhibits a ladder like pore structure, however, in activated carbon fabrics, the micropores sit on the fabric surface to adsorb gas. Additionally, metals such as aluminium, manganese, zinc, iron, lithium, calcium, palladium and silver have been incorporated to remove toxic chemicals [3]. Researchers have found that an existing nuclear biological chemical suit that incorporates an activated carbon sphere fabric has a mass of around 400-410 g/m² and a dichloropropane penetration rate of 180 seconds and a chemical protection of 24 hours. Therefore, incorporating this material will likely enhance chemical adsorption and biological filtration, while using a lighterweight material. In this product innovation profile, WTiN reports on a composite protective textile developed by researchers at the Defence Research and Development Organization, India. The team have discovered a cost-effective way to create a protective functional textile material for defence applications. This new material incorporates layers of both electrospun nanofibre chitosan and activated carbon spheres to protect against sulphur mustard chemical warfare agents and biological threats, meeting the stringent defence protective standards, while also reducing the weight of the protective suit by 25%.
In this product innovation profile, WTiN reports on a composite protective textile developed by researchers at the Defence Research and Development Organization, India. The team have discovered a cost-effective way to create a protective functional textile material for defence applications. This new material incorporates layers of both electrospun nanofibre chitosan and activated carbon spheres to protect against sulphur mustard chemical warfare agents and biological threats, meeting the stringent defence protective standards, while also reducing the weight of the protective suit by 25% [1].
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