Auto-regenerating Decontaminant Coating for Fabrics and Surfaces

"The Department of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense Program has a need for a highly effective, relatively low cost, low human toxicity coating or surface treatment that can be applied to fabrics and other surfaces to render them self-decontaminatingto chemical and biological warfare agents. ETEC has identified a novel chemistry that promises to be a highly effective self-regenerating decontaminating agent at room temperature. The chemistry can be applied as an active coating or as a modification tocellulosic fibers. The novel agent will fully neutralize both chemical and biological agents, and it will have very low toxicity to humans. The Phase I effort will demonstrate the feasibility of this agent through preparation of the new chemistry on cottoncloth and as a coating on a metal substrate, decontamination effectiveness testing, and cost estimation. The Phase I effort includes selecting the best embodiments, determining decontamination effectiveness using simulated contaminants, developing thebonding and coating chemistry, estimating cost, and reporting results. Phase I will determine the feasibility of the novel chemistry. The result of Phase II will be two products, a self-decontaminating fabric treatment and a durable self-decontaminatingsurface coating. The benefits of the products will be greater operations efficiency and lower cost, better availability and increased life of equipment and clothing during CBW scenarios, a