Looking Toward Nerve-Gas Resistant Clothing

May-08-14 By engineering carbon nanotubes able to render dangerous chemicals harmless, researchers may have found a way to create clothing able to protect its wearer from nerve gas attacks.

Although nerves gases like Sarin are deadly if inhaled, they are also dangerous if absorbed through the skin, and can even be re-released from improperly decontaminated clothing. The team, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), combined nanotubes with a copper-based catalyst able to break the chemical bonds of the nerve gas Sarin and other nerve agents in the same class. Based on the accepted premise that carbon nanotubes can be woven into clothing, the researchers believe the new copper-laced versions could help protect wearers by breaking down the chemicals and rendering them harmless before they can make contact with the body.

The team still needs to determine how to maximize the effectiveness of the process and decide when the catalyst should be introduced to the nanotubes.

More Info about this Invention:

[NIST.GOV]
[EXTREME TECH]

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