Army Challenges Scientists To Develop Better Uniforms For Soldiers
Aug. 19, 2020
Researchers develop flame-retardant, insect-repellent fabric that uses nontoxic substances.
What does the uniform of a U.S. Army soldier go through? Quite a bit, according to a recent article from SciTech Daily. For starters, it needs to provide comfort in many different climates, withstand multiple washings, resist fires and repel insects. Because existing fabrics weren't measuring up, a group of scientists aspiring to meet the Army’s requirement for multifunctionality developed a new way to create a flame-retardant, insect-repellent fabric that uses nontoxic substances.
The research team led by Ramaswamy Nagarajan, Ph.D. of the University of Massachusetts Lowell Center for Advanced Materials modified a commercially available 50-50 nylon-cotton blend fabric – a comfortable and durable fabric but one that doesn’t inherently repel bugs and is associated with fire risk – to be flame retardant and insect repellent. According to the article, the scientists used a non-toxic, phosphorus-containing compound to deliver flame retardancy and attached a non-toxic insect repellent to the fabric using plasma-assisted deposition. After trial and error, they successfully got the substances to link to the fabric’s surface molecules. Nagarajan’s group presented their results this week at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo.
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