Decontamination media

A compromise solution to these problems has been sought in the use of micelles and emulsions, both of which have been examined as potential liquid decontamination media. The best studied of a number of such systems are the German emulsion with the code name a microemulsion system MCBD (multi-purpose chemical, biological decontaminant) and the phase-transfer system by Ramsden et All of these systems use tetra-chloroethane as the organic phase and active chlorine as the decontaminant. 

Microemulsions as Decontamination Media for Chemical Weapons and Toxic Industrial Chemicals... 

After the Cold War, the rise of the asymmetric warfare and the emergence of chemical terrorism (e.g., the Sarin attack in Japan) show the necessity for the development of new efficient decontamination media. The danger arising from the accidental release of toxic chemicals after the destruction of industrial plants also has to be considered. Hence, effective decontaminants are very much needed for mihtary decontamination forces but also for civilian first responders and firefighters [1],... 

The requirements include decontaminants and decontamination procedures that both remove and neutralize these toxic chemicals as well as techniques that help prevent the spread of chemical contamination. Modem decontamination media, which match these requirements, will allow to reconstitute personnel and equipment r idly [1]. 

The most effective way to decontaminate contaminated surfaces is the degradation of CW agents and toxic industrial chemicals by reactive compounds. To do so, reactive chemicals and ideally extractively acting solvents have to be part of the decontamination media used. 

Important Requirements for New Microemulsion-Based Decontamination Media... 

In order to replace established but disadvantageous and obsolete decontamination media, studies on microemulsions are of growing importance at present [4,33]. Since this complex topic was beyond the scope of fundamental research on microemulsions, only a few groups worked in this field [3,34-40,43]. Related to this, the number of publications devoted to this subject is limited but reveals basic findings, which are important for further investigations and improvements. These findings will be reviewed further. 

These results also indicate that the reaction rate of the hydrolysis was reduced to 20% compared with the activity of the enzyme in an aqueous solution. However, this still is high enough to justify the intensification of the efforts of an optimization of the decontamination media [49]. 

It was already shown that this is possible and the understanding of the behavior of such technical grade components benefits from the great knowledge of the fundamental general principles of the phase behavior in amphiphilic systems obtained in numerous studies. Hence, for the future new decontaminants media as a hard surface cleaner based on microemulsion formulation can be expected for both military decontamination forces and civilian first responders. 

Great efforts have been made in order to replace established but harmful, corrosive, and therefore, obsolete decontamination media for chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals. Chapter 14 by Hellweg and coworkers discusses the considerable advantages of microemulsion-based decontamination systems with respect to practical boundary conditions and fundamental principles of microemulsion formation. Additionally, the authors illustrate the further development to versatile, environmentally compatible and nonharmful systems containing nanoparticles and enzymes as active components. 

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