Studies on decontamination of toxic chemical using nanoporous materials

Abstract

Objective of our study was to explore and evaluate the novel and alternative reactive sorbent decontaminants based on nanoporous materials to the existing ones such as fuller’s earth for the use in personal decontamination kits and spray devices against chemical weapons. Nanoporous materials have exceptional capacity to adsorb wide range of chemical weapons on their large internal as well as external surface and also in the nanometer sized pore space. They can be spread or sprayed on contaminated surfaces to help in decontamination by adsorptive removal of chemical weapons. After adsorption, they participate in chemical reactions with chemical weapons and decontaminate them owing to the wealth of active sites on their surface. Subsequently, after wiping off the used reactive sorbent decontaminant the surfaces are rendered safe for normal operations.