In-situ detoxification of schedule-I chemical warfare agents utilizing Zr(OH)@W-ACF functional material for the development of next generation NBC protective gears.

Chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have become a pivotal concern for the global community and spurred a wide spectrum of research for the development of new generation protective materials. Herein, a highly effective self-detoxifying filter consisting of in-situ immobilized Zirconium hydroxide [Zr(OH)] over woven activated carbon fabric [Zr(OH)@W-ACF] is presented for the removal of CWAs. It was prepared to harness the synergistic effect of high surface area of W-ACF, leads to high dispersion of CWAs and high phosphilicity and reactivity of [Zr(OH)]. The synthesized materials were characterized by ATR-FTIR, EDX, SEM, TEM, XPS, TGA, and BET surface area analyzer. The kinetics of  in-situ degradation of CWAs over Zr(OH)@W-ACF were studied and found to be following the first-order reaction kinetics. The rate constant was found to be 0.244 min and 2.31 × 10 min for sarin and soman, respectively over Zr(OH)@W-ACF. The potential practical applicability of this work was established by fabricating Zr(OH)@W-ACF as reactive adsorbent layer for protective suit, and found to be meeting the specified criteria in terms of air permeability, tearing strength and nerve agent permeation as per TOP-08-2-501A:2013 and IS-17380:2020. The degradation products of CWAs were analyzed with NMR and GC-MS. The combined properties of dual functional textile with reactive material are expected to open up new exciting avenues in the field of CWAs protective clothing and thus find diverse application in defence and environmental sector.