Cbrne personal protective equipment: the potential of multifunctional fibrous structures

Abstract

The main goal of this work was the functionalization of natural fibers with nanoparticles (NPs) for the development of multifunctional fibrous systems. Thus, natural fibres were functionalized with metal and metal oxide NPs by in-situ synthesis (using water as solvent and a minimal concentration of reducing agent) and the precursor was chosen depending on the kind of NPs under use. Besides in situ synthesis, the dip-pad-dry method was also used for the fibers’ impregnation with the NPs formulations. The developed systems were characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and Ground-State Diffuse Reflectance (GSDR). Several properties were analysed including degradation of chemical agents, antibacterial activity, self-cleaning capability, UV protection, electrical conductivity and piezoresistive response.