There is a need to understand and predict how decontamination technologies will work on real assets in the field upon contamination with actual chemical weapons (i.e., not refined laboratory-grade agents). Current methodologies primarily focus on the testing of clean, ideal materials, such as flat, horizontal surfaces in a laboratory environment, using highly purified agents. The magnitude of the effects of the dominant mechanisms responsible for interactions between agents and materials in the limits of agent impurities is not known. Toward this end, this work was focused on determining whether the use of high-purity agent over- or underestimates decontamination performance results as compared with agent and material configurations that may be observed in operational environments. Examples from three different materials types were considered as part of this study, specifically, bare metal surfaces, polymer coatings, and bulk elastomers. Contaminants included GD, HD, and VX of variable purity while liquid phase decontaminant solutions involved sequences of soapy water or bleach. Results will be presented on the characterization of how impurities in agent solutions influence agent retention and decontamination performance as compared with high-purity agent, especially for materials susceptible to contaminant absorption.

Effect of chemical purity on measurement of agent resistance and decontamination performance for materials

2019 Fall National Meeting

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