"Spray-Type Decontaminant Developed: 'No More Worries About North Korea's Chemical Weapons When Sprayed'"

KIST Research Team Develops Sprayable Coating-Type Detoxification Catalyst

Decontamination spray. Decontamination catalyst powder (left) and material coated with decontamination catalyst on glass (right) developed by the research team at Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A decontaminant that can remove toxic components of chemical weapons when sprayed like a spray has been developed.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced on the 9th that the research team led by Principal Researcher Baek Kyung-yeol at the Center for Material Structure Control succeeded in developing a decontamination composite material that is easy to process and coat.

The previously developed Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) decontamination catalyst had high decontamination performance but was in the form of particles that crumble like sand, making it impractical for coating military uniforms and equipment. To overcome this problem, the research team designed functional polymers and mixed them with the decontamination catalyst to develop a new concept decontamination technology that can be processed into films, fibers, etc., while maintaining performance.

The research team newly developed a functional polymer-type support that improves processability while maintaining the high reactivity of the zirconium (Zr)-based decontamination catalyst at the nanometer scale, which was already developed in 2019, and used the composite material mixed with it as the decontamination catalyst. By applying the composite material to the spray process of military uniforms and equipment to form a decontamination coating layer and testing the decontamination performance using the actual chemical weapon nerve agent soman (GD), it was confirmed that the developed material is applicable as a decontamination coating material.

Principal Researcher Baek explained, “Unlike the previously reported electrospinning method, the simple spray process enables rapid coating over a wide area, and the ability to easily remove the toxicity of chemical weapons is the distinguishing feature of this research,” adding, “Through spray coating, it is possible not only to pre-decontaminate military uniforms and equipment in emergencies but also to perform post-decontamination of contaminated parts, which is expected to more effectively protect the lives and safety of soldiers and citizens from chemical weapons or highly toxic chemical substances.”

The research results were published online in the latest issue of ‘ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces,’ an international academic journal in the field of composites (IF: 10.383, JCR top 14.05%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.