Highly selective and lightweight protective suits featuring excellent breathability, mechanical robustness, and catalytic degradation performance toward chemical warfare agents (CWAs) are highly ...desirable for first responders and the military. However, current multilayered state-of-the-art chemical/biological (CB) protective textiles containing activated carbon and separate aerosol-protective layers exhibit several drawbacks including high thermal burden and secondary contamination. Herein, we present for the first time, a highly sorptive, breathable, and mechanically strong aerosol-protective layered fabric with prominent catalytic degradation capability of CWA simulant, through novel material selection and engineering design. The electrospun polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) fiber web with hierarchical porosity is used as a matrix material, preventing toxic gas penetration while providing pathways for air and water vapor molecules. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers assembled with PIM-1 fibers via a layer-by-layer electrospun-deposition approach are shown to achieve significantly enhanced mechanical integrity and filtration efficiency, due to the high polar chemical structure and small fiber diameter of PAN. The subsequent incorporation of UiO-66-NH2 particles, a Zr-based metal-organic framework (MOF), further enhances the sorption capacity while maintaining excellent filtration efficiency, mechanical strength, and breathability, and also endows the fiber web with remarkable catalytic degradation towards CWA simulants. The resulting PIM/PAN/MOF composite fiber mat demonstrates unprecedented integrated properties with water vapor transmission rate of 1,013 g/m2·24 h, surface area of 574 m2/g, increased tensile strength (more than 70 times compared to neat PIM-1 fiber web), and PM2.5 and PM10 filtration efficiency of 99.88% and 99.94%, respectively, comparable to commercial polypropylene (PP) non-woven textile. This facile and effective fabrication of such a multifunctional composite fiber mat is valuable for the design of protective garments in health care, personal protective gear, and law enforcement and military uniforms.
We fabricated a polymer of intrinsic microporosity/polyacrylonitrile/metaol-organic framework composite fibrous mat with high gas sorption capacity, breathability, particle filtration efficiency, mechanical robustness and catalytic degradation performance towards chemical warfare agent (CWA) simulants. Display omitted
•A highly sorptive, breathable fibrous mat was fabricated with a microporous polymer.•Increased particle filtration efficiency and mechanical strength were achieved via a multilayered structure.•Metal-organic framework particles endow the fiber mat with catalytic degradation capability.•Design of the as-made composite fiber mat is critical for development of protective textiles.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The aim of this study is to determine the release of TiO2 from six sport garments into the wash water after 1, 2 and 10 washes. For such, Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry was ...employed for the study of the wash water and Scanning Electron Microscopy - Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDS) was used for the analysis of the textiles. Results showed that the six sport garments released between 0.106 mg/L and 0.352 mg/L after the first two washes and between 0.028 mg/L and 0.337 mg/L of Ti after ten washes. The values found for the Ti amount released in wash water, and consequently into the environment, is much less than other common sources. These results showed the potential of TXRF spectrometry in quantifying Ti in wash water, which is a hard task even for well-established methods. SEM images show that all six samples were weft knitted fabrics, with yarns of approximately 250 μm of width and fibers’ width between 9 and 13 μm.
•Titanium dioxide released from UV-protective textiles after one, two and ten washes.•Quantified in wash water the titanium dioxide released from textiles during wash.•Potential environmental risk compared with other source of titanium dioxide.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
A firefighter in the wildland fields spends an average of 8 to 16 h during which he encounters enormous physical effort and very demanding outdoor conditions of high temperatures. Research shows that ...the most common injuries are due to the occurrence of heat stress, and not due to lack of protection against burns. Therefore, for this very specific field of firefighting, it is necessary to provide clothing that will, in addition to adequate flame protection, provide good comfort properties such as lightweight suits, good porosity and breathability, so that gaseous sweat and heat generated by body heating can be released into the environment. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of structural parameters of multi-weft woven fabrics on two mutually contradictory properties—breathability and thermal protection. When designing fabrics, the goal was to produce a structure with a high proportion of volume pores, which, regardless of the increased volume of the fabric, insure the fabric mass would be acceptably small. Volume pores in the fabric have two roles—as a heat insulator and as an inhibitor of the breathability of the material. The analysis of the obtained results showed that the thickness and mass of the fabric have a greater influence on the water vapor resistance, while the heat transmission property is more affected by the thickness, porosity and fiber content.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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