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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Nexus of Electrospun Nanofibers and Additive Processing—Overview of Wearable Tactical Gears for CBRNE Defense

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description

Due to complex nature of twenty-first century battlefield, soldiers must perform multiple tasks to protect nations while maintaining their own safety. Advances in technological innovations are critical to support such functionalities to enhance safety and security. Using nexus of electrospinning and additive processing, we present how recent developments can be used to produce new generation of protective fabrics with integrative force protection, sensing/detection of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives (CBRNE), and biomedical functionalities. Although electrospinning has been in use for some time, the special blends and configurations of nanofibers, as described here, offer several unique characteristics that render textile lightweight yet effective against impact, breathable yet offers protection against chemical and biological agents, and provides effective protection for various specific applications. Thus, the newly developed composite materials gained various features such as flame retardancy, UV protection, pollutant capturing, antibacterial property, decontamination, detoxification, and self-cleaning ability as well as providing donning comfort. These properties can be achieved by incorporating functional agents with specific ligands or molecules into the fibers. A diverse set of morphologies can also be produced by regulating the operating conditions and needle configurations. The additive processing offers a scaffold configuration for specific applications and hence a nexus of the two processes are used in various applications due to their extraordinary physico-chemical features in reduced dimensions.