Study of Laminated Activated Carbon Fabric ( LACF ) and Laminated Activated Carbon Sphere ( LACS ) as a Protective Barrier Against Chemical Warfare Agent

ABSTRACT Activated carbon has a crucial role in the development of protective clothing. Activated carbon in different forms (sphere/bead/fabric) with high surface area (~900 m 2 /g or better) is used in laminated form to prepare different breathable chemical protective clothing systems. In the present study, physical, chemical, and functional properties of laminated activated carbon sphere (LACS) and laminated activated carbon fabric (LACF) have been studied. LACF provides equivalent chemical protection (more than 28 h) against chemical warfare agent (HD mustard) with 21.5% lesser weight/gsm as compared to LACS. It is observed that LACF has 31% higher bending length and 1.1% higher bursting strength as compared to LACS. Air permeability of LACS is considerably higher (> 3.5 times) at low pressure head (100 Pa) than LACF whereas it is equivalent at higher pressure head (150 Pa). Water vapor transport ratio of LACF and LACS are ~279.71 and ~250.29 g/m 2 /day respectively, and it remains almost the same after six wash cycles. Samples are characterized with FESEM, XRD, TGA, DSC, FTIR, XPS, and RAMAN spectroscopy to establish the structure–property relationship of different components. LACF has better properties than LACS, and is more suitable for advanced chemical protective textiles.