Today鈥檚 chemical warfare suits are too hot and heavy 鈥� as soldiers and war reporters are finding in Iraq. The University of Akron in Ohio is hoping to help in any future conflicts with a new lightweight, cool chemical protection suit (US 6520425).
The suits will be woven from polymer fibres half a micrometre wide embedded with neutralising chemicals. The fibres are made by squirting the polymer through a high-pressure nozzle into the gap between two concentric pipes, each a few millimetres wide. A gas blasted through the centre pipe drags the polymer out into a 鈥渕are鈥檚 tail鈥� of superfine jets 鈥� which solidify into nanofibres. Because the fabric is woven it has a larger surface area for locking up gas molecules than a flat material. Nerve gases, for example, will get trapped in the weave and neutralised by the action of catalysts embedded in the fibre.
