Multi-functional protective textiles and methods for decontamination

Abstract

A reactive and adsorptive (i.e., multi-functional protective) textile and methods for constructing and using same which possess at least chemically reactive and biocidal properties. Nanoparticles from different classes such as metal oxides, metal hydroxides, metal hydrates and POMs are incorporated into elements which can be utilized in a wide variety of protective materials. The nanoparticles may be treated to reduce water solubility or combined with halogens, alkali metals or secondary metal oxides to specifically engineer the nanoparticle to address a particular chemical or biocidal threat. In one aspect, a protective spatially-distributed biocidal interface is provided comprising a textile having interior structures, wherein protective nanoparticles bonded to said interior structures such that an article or portions of an article which are maintained in proximity to the textile are permitted to safely pass through a contaminated environment without dispersing the nanoparticles from protective proximity to the article.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . An apparatus for protecting against chemical and biological agent threats comprising: 
 a textile having interior structures; and    protective nanoparticles bonded to said interior structures.    
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said interior structures comprise interstices of the textile.  
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said interior structures comprise perpendicular fibers extending between upper and lower fabric layers of a 3-D spacer fabric.  
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said textile includes an upper exterior surface and a lower exterior surface and wherein said interior structures comprise fibers disposed between said upper and lower exterior surfaces.  
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein said fibers include non-perpendicular fibers which intersect direct perpendicular paths between exterior surfaces to form serpentine paths through the textile thereby raising residence time of the chemical and biological agents encountering the textile to increase contact with said nanoparticles.  
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the interior structure comprises a first layer, and wherein the apparatus further comprises a second layer parallel to said first layer and wherein said second layer contains activated carbon.  
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising 
 non-occluding bonding means for bonding said protective nanoparticles to said interior structure while maintaining effective surface areas for contacting the chemical and biological threats.    
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said protective nanoparticles include at least one of chemically adsorptive nanoparticles, chemically reactive nanoparticles, and biocidally reactive nanoparticles.  
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said nanoparticles include at least one of metal oxides, metal hydroxides, metal hydrates, and POMs.  
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said nanoparticles are combined with at least one of a metal oxide, a reactive halogen, an alkali metal, a metal nitrate, SO 2 , NO 2  and ozone.  
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said nanoparticles are formed from 1-200 nm sized nanoparticle clusters.  
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , where said nanoparticles have a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) multi-point surface area of at least about 70 m 2 /g to at least about 120 m 2 /g.  
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said nanoparticles have an average pore radius of at least about 45 Angstroms to at least about 100 Angstroms.  
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said apparatus includes a non-air permeable layer.  
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said apparatus includes a first layer for protecting against a chemical threat and a second layer for protecting against a biological threat.  
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein said first layer included activated carbon.  
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein one of said layers includes activated carbon performance enhancing nanoparticles.  
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein one of said layers includes a biocidal nanoparticles.  
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is included into one of clothing, filters, tents, stretchers, field equipment, blankets and textile based products.  
     
     
         20 . A protective spatially-distributed biocidal interface, comprising: 
 a textile having interior structures;    protective nanoparticles bonded to said interior structures such that an article or portions of an article which are maintained in proximity to the textile are permitted to safely pass through a contaminated environment without dispersing the nanoparticles from protective proximity to the article.    
     
     
         21 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein said interior structures comprise perpendicular fibers extending between upper and lower fabric layers of a 3-D spacer fabric.  
     
     
         22 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein said interior structures comprise fibers disposed between upper and lower exterior surfaces of the textile.  
     
     
         23 . The interface of  claim 22 , wherein said fibers are non-perpendicular fibers which intersect direct perpendicular paths between exterior surfaces thereby increasing residence time for contact with the nanoparticles.  
     
     
         24 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the interior structure comprises a first layer, wherein the interface further comprises a second layer parallel to said first layer and wherein said second layer includes activated carbon.  
     
     
         25 . The interface of  claim 20 , further comprising 
 non-occluding bonding means for bonding said protective nanoparticles to said interior structure while maintaining effective surface areas for contacting chemical and biological threats.    
     
     
         26 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein said protective nanoparticles include at least one of chemically adsorptive nanoparticles, chemically reactive nanoparticles, and biocidally reactive nanoparticles.  
     
     
         27 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein said nanoparticles include at least one of metal oxides, metal hydroxides, metal hydrates, and POMs.  
     
     
         28 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein said nanoparticles are combined with a material including at least one of a metal oxide, a reactive halogen, an alkali metal, a metal nitrate, SO 2 , NO 2  and ozone.  
     
     
         29 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein said nanoparticles are formed from 1-200 nm sized nanoparticle clusters.  
     
     
         30 . The interface of  claim 20 , where said nanoparticles have a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) multi-point surface area of at least about 70 m 2 /g to at least about 120 m 2 /g.  
     
     
         31 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein said nanoparticles have an average pore radius of at least about 45 Angstroms to at least about 100 Angstroms.  
     
     
         32 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the textile includes carbon beads having nanoparticles applied thereon.  
     
     
         33 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the textile includes upper and lower fabrics which bound the interior structure therebetween, said upper and lower fabrics having nanoparticles applied thereon.  
     
     
         34 . The interface of  claim 33 , wherein at least one of the upper and lower fabrics is attached to or includes a material which prevents gas flow through the material  
     
     
         35 . The interface of  claim 20 , further comprising a plurality of layers for protecting against chemical and biological threats layered to form a stack.  
     
     
         36 . The interface of  claim 35 , wherein each layer of the stack provides protection against a different threat.  
     
     
         37 . The interface of  claim 35 , wherein each layer of the stack provides protection against a different level of a threat.  
     
     
         38 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the interface is included in clothing.  
     
     
         39 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the interface is included in at least one of military apparel, tents, stretchers, field equipment, blankets, and textile products.  
     
     
         40 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the article includes at least a portion of a human.  
     
     
         41 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the article is enveloped in the textile.  
     
     
         42 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the article includes food.  
     
     
         43 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the article includes space housing a life form.  
     
     
         44 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the interface is coupled to the article prior to entering the contaminated environment.  
     
     
         45 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the interface is air/liquid permeable.  
     
     
         46 . The interface of  claim 20 , wherein the nanoparticles in the textile remain in a substantially fixed position relative to each other.  
     
     
         47 . A method of protecting against a chemical or biological agent with a textile-based decontaminant, comprising the steps of: 
 providing nanoparticles which possess protective properties; and    bonding the nanoparticles to the textile with non-occluding retaining means such that an interior of the textile is adapted to decontaminate chemical or biological agents disposed within a portion of the environment that encounters the interior of the textile.    
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 47 , wherein said textile includes spacer fibers that form a decontamination zone.  
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein said bonding step comprises loading nanoparticles onto said spacer fibers to obtain a predetermined chemical or biological decontamination capacity.  
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 49 , further comprising adjusting the length of said spacer fibers to control the distance through the decontamination zone.  
     
     
         51 . The method of  claim 50 , further comprising adjusting the density of said spacer fibers to control the contact time with environments.  
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 51 , further comprising determining nanoparticle loading to obtain a target decontamination rate based on the distance and contact time of contaiminants within the environment.  
     
     
         53 . The method of  claim 49 , wherein said textile is an air-permeable textile having a vapor and liquid diffusion rate, wherein the diffusion rate is a function of one of textile thickness, size of spacer fibers, density of spacer fibers, configuration of spacer fibers and permeability of exterior layers.  
     
     
         54 . The method of  claim 53 , further comprising determining nanoparticle loading to obtain a target decontamination rate as a function of the diffusion rates.  
     
     
         55 . The method of  claim 47 , wherein the nanoparticles are formed from 1-200 nm sized nanoparticulate clusters.  
     
     
         56 . The method of  claim 47 , wherein the nanoparticles include one of metal oxides, metal hydrates, metal hydroxides, and POMs.  
     
     
         57 . The method of  claim 47 , wherein the nanoparticles are combined with a composition including one of a second different metal oxide, a reactive halogen atom, an alkali metal, a metal nitrate, SO 2 , NO 2 , and ozone.  
     
     
         58 . The method of  claim 47 , wherein substantially no nanoparticles remain on the exterior of the layers.  
     
     
         59 . A method of protecting against a chemical or biological agent with a textile-based decontaminant, comprising the steps of: 
 providing a textile having nanoparticles which possess protective properties bound to the textile with non-occluding retaining means, such that an interior of the textile is adapted to decontaminate chemical or biological agents which encounter said interior of the textile; and    exposing the textile to a chemical or biological threat such that the threat is reduced or eliminated as the threat enters the textile.    
     
     
         60 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein said step of exposing includes rendering the chemical threat inert.  
     
     
         61 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein said step of exposing includes subjecting biological agents within the textile to lysis.  
     
     
         62 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein said step of exposing includes preventing biological entities from reproducing.  
     
     
         63 . The method of  claim 59 , further comprising the step of incorporating the textile into clothing or textile products.  
     
     
         64 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein following said step of exposing, the method further comprises the step of: 
 reconditioning the textile by bonding additional nanoparticles to the textile with further non-occluding retaining means.    
     
     
         65 . The method of  claim 64 , wherein said further non-occluding retaining means is the same as the non-occluding retaining means of said providing step.  
     
     
         66 . The method of  claim 64 , wherein said further non-occluding retaining means is different from the non-occluding retaining means of said providing step.  
     
     
         67 . The method of  claim 59 , further comprising the step of stacking a plurality of textiles to protect against a threat or multiple threats.  
     
     
         68 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein following said exposing step, the method further comprises the step of: 
 reusing the textile when the nanoparticles remain unconsumed during said exposing step.    
     
     
         69 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein the nanoparticles are formed from 1-200 nm sized nanoparticulate clusters.  
     
     
         70 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein the nanoparticles include one of metal oxides, metal hydrates, metal hydroxides, and POMs.  
     
     
         71 . The method of  claim 59 , wherein the nanoparticles are combined with a composition including one of a second different metal oxide, a reactive halogen atom, a metal nitrate, SO 2 , NO 2 , and ozone.