Chemical and biological warfare protection and self-decontaminating flax fabrics based on CaO nanoparticles

Abstract

The aim of this research was to develop fibrous structures using flax, functionalized with calcium oxide nanoparticles, with degradation properties and antibacterial activity. Flax samples were successfully functionalized with CaO nanoparticles (CaO NPs) and characterized by ATR-FTIR, FESEM, EDX and TGA techniques. ATR-FTIR and FESEM results clearly indicated the presence of CaO NPs in the flax fabrics’ surface. The influence of surface pre-treatments on the effectiveness of the nanoparticles’ deposition was also studied. Three different treatments were used: Alkali, Acetylation and Potassium Permanganate. The alkali treatment presented the best results, therefore, only alkali flax samples were used in UV degradation experiments, as well as antibacterial activity analysis. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the developed systems as agents against chemical and biological warfare, the samples’ organophosphate degradation ability (using DMMP as a GB mimic) was tested, under UV irradiation. ATR-FTIR results indicated that DMMP was successfully degraded by CaO Flax samples. Antibacterial tests were also performed, using the Halo method, which did not yield the expected results, in the range of tested conditions.