 |
 |
 |
 |
| SESHADRI RAMKUMAR, PhD Associate Professor of Nonwoven Materials & Inventor of Fibertect |
RON KENDALL, PhD Professor of Environmental Toxicology |
UTKARSH SATA Research Associate |
GOPAL COIMBATORE Research Associate |
TIEHH Team Develops New Product
That Mops Up Residue of Chemical Agents
Written by Toni Salama
The Wipe That's More Effective Than a Powder
Seshadri Ramkumar, Associate Professor of Nonwoven Materials in The Institute for Environmental & Human Health (TIEHH) and the inventor of Fibertect, led a six-member team in developing a new version of Fibertect, a nonwoven decontamination wipe that could protect military personnel, first responders and civilians in the aftermath of chemical warfare incidents.
Study results have shown that the new Fibertect, which consists of cotton and porous carbon, cleaned up the chemical surrogate to the nerve gas soman and adsorbed its vapors five times better than the powdered decontaminant M-291, which the U.S. Department of Defense wants to phase out.
Co-investigators from Texas Tech were Ron Kendall, Professor of Environmental Toxicology; Utkarsh Sata, Research Associate; and Gopal Coimbatore, Research Associate. Other researchers were Eugene Wilusz of the U.S. Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center, and Steve Mlynarek of the University of South Florida.
Research results were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Engineered Fibers & Fabrics, by INDA – Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry.
The research was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Defense, Cotton Inc., the International Cotton Research Center, the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Cotton Foundation and The CH Foundation.