Breathable 'Second Skin' for Smart Military Uniforms

Aiming to protect soldiers from biological and chemical threats, a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have created a material that is highly breathable yet protective from biological agents. This material is the first key component of futuristic smart uniforms that also will respond to and protect from environmental chemical hazards.

Transcript

00:00:04 [Music] so with this project we aim to um solve an important problem for both military and civilian applications so here at limore we have developed a uh material NOA material that is able to provide easy perspiration of moisture and water vapor and the same time to protect from biological threats this material essentially exploit the

00:00:40 unique properties of nanomaterials like carbon nanot tubes which have small Port sizes so small that are able to block biological threads and at the same time allow water vapor to go through at a very high speed if you you um imagine the size of a human hair these carbon anot are about 5,000 times smaller in diameter so so far we have demonstrated swatches of this material that are able

00:01:15 indeed to provide a transport rate for water vapor that is very high so we know that the ratability of these materials is outstanding to give you an example is much better than gortex or other Bri aable Fabrics that you typically find commercially in sportware and or so right now we are working together with collaborating institution to apply a novel polymeric material on the top of

00:01:47 the U membrane which uh is able to uh react with chemical warfare agents and by doing so provide protection we have a couple of different strategies in mind one is uh to um a material that actually collapse and in the presence of a thread and by doing so block the entrance of uh the pores and therefore uh block chemical refer agents and the other concept is material that actually

00:02:21 destroy the thread and peels off from from the surface of the membrane um this is thought to be really new paradigm of protection because you can imagine that the sold that we wear a suit that is very breathable and comfortable to start with and when it goes into environment where a contaminant is present either biological or chemical the material Pell will react to the environment and

00:02:49 provide protection without the need of changing actually uh gear and this also means that you can perform your uh activities in the contaminated environment for very long time because the material is actually breakable [Music]