Decontamination of Chemical Warfare Agents with Nanosize Metal Oxides

Chemical warfare agents (CWA) VX, GD, and HD react with nanosize metal oxides to form non-toxic product, thus affording their decontamination. Reactions of these CWA with several nanocrystalline reactive sorbents of varied particle size and surface area are examined with regard to both reaction kinetics and their ability to decontaminate Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (CARC) paint, used on military vehicles. The results are compared to the currently-fielded Sorbent Decon System (SDS) A-200 sorbent. For VX the best sorbent was nTiO 2 which exhibited a half-life for sorbed VX of less than 2 min. Half-lives of tens-of-minutes were observed for GD on nTiO 2, nMgO, and the commercial FAST-ACT ® sorbent. Half-lives of a few to many hours were observed for HD on nAl 2 O 3, nTiO 2, FAST-ACT ®, and A-200, but only with sufficient surface hydration. With regard to reactivity only, A-200 did not perform as well as the nanocrystalline sorbents, especially for VX and GD. However, all of the sorbents, A-200 included, provided for the comparable removal/decontamination of HD and GD from CARC panels, ca. 75 % and 87 %, respectively.