This study investigates the detoxification properties of guanidinylated chitosan against chemical warfare agents and its application to the preparation of military protective clothing. Guanidinylated chitosan was synthesized by chitosan guanidinylation with cyanamide. The detoxification properties of the guanidinylated chitosan were then evaluated using a chemical warfare agent simulant, called diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP). Cotton fabric was treated with 1 wt.% of guanidinylated chitosan in acetic acid and water solution using the simple and conventional textile treatment method of pad–dry–cure. The detoxification properties of the guanidinylated chitosan-treated cotton fabric were evaluated to investigate the application of guanidinylated chitosan to the preparation of military protective clothing. Subsequently, 71.3% of DFP was hydrolyzed to non-hazardous diisopropylhydrogenphosphate (DHP) in 2 h because of the base organocatalytic activity of 0.02 g guanidinylated chitosan itself. Moreover, 60.1% of DFP was hydrolyzed by the catalytic activity of the guanidinylated chitosan-treated cotton fabric, which contained only 0.0002 g of guanidinylated chitosan. This result shows that the guanidinylated chitosan itself has detoxification properties for hydrolyzing DFP to DHP, and its detoxification properties can be more efficient when applied to cotton fabric because it showed 84.3% of the detoxification properties with only 1 wt.% of guanidinylated chitosan. For the first time, this study shows that guanidinylated chitosan has considerable detoxification properties and can be used as an agent to prepare protective clothing.
In this study, self-cleaning polyester (PET) fabrics were prepared using TiOF2 and hexadecyltrimethoxysilane(HDS) treatment. TiOF2 was synthesized via direct fluorination of a precursor TiO2 at various reaction temperatures. The prepared PET fabrics had superior photocatalytic self-cleaning properties compared with anatase TiO2/HDS-treated PET fabrics under UV and sunlight with 98% decomposition of methylene blue. TiOF2/HDS-treated PET fabrics also had superior superhydrophobic self-cleaning properties compared with anatase TiO2/HDS-treated PET fabrics with a 161° water contact angle and 6° roll-off angle. After the self-cleaning tests of the non-dyed TiOF2/HDS-treated PET fabrics, we prepared dyed TiOF2/HDS-treated PET fabrics to test practical aspects of the treatment method. These PET fabrics were barely stained by tomato ketchup; even when stained, they could be self-cleaned within 4 h. These results suggest that practical self-cleaning PET fabrics with superhydrophobicity and photocatalytic degradation could be prepared using TiOF2/HDS-treatment.
Porous polyimide (PI) films are a promising low-k dielectric material for high-frequency data transmission with low signal attenuation. Pores are generated by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) during phase inversion of polymer solution via non-solvent accumulation and solvent diffusion. In this study, aromatic PI was employed as a matrix for NIPS, and the influence of polymer concentration and liquid—liquid demixing time on the morphology of pores in the PI films was investigated. This ensured control over the porous structure of the PI film and provided desirable dielectric properties in a broad frequency range of 100 Hz–30 MHz (1.99 at 30 MHz) and thermal stability (Td5% > 576 °C, Tg > 391 °C). This study addresses the effect of polymer concentration and coagulation time on the morphology and physical properties of PI sponge films and provides guidance on the design and optimization of architectures for polymeric materials requiring pore modification.
1 January 2022 in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy