Reactive Coatings Literature Review

This document is a review of reactive coatings to protect military personnel from chemical and biological warfare (CW/BW) agents. Decontamination of surfaces exposed to chemical or biological agents presents a major challenge to U.S. forces. Present decontaminants may have problems with toxicity or corrosion; all decontamination solutions present the logistical challenge of supplying them when and where they are needed. Reactive coatings would be available at any time, enhancing protection while simplifying logistics. Ideally, a reactive coating would not add significantly to the cost or weight of the coating system and would not compromise other properties of the coating. The purpose of this review is to identify available technologies and ongoing research in reactive coatings for military equipment. We define a reactive coating as a surface coating that neutralizes chemical or biological threats by a chemical reaction. We first considered requirements for reactive coatings. Key elements are the rate of decontamination, effectiveness against the full range of threats that U.S. forces are exposed to, ability to maintain performance under all conditions, safety and environmental friendliness, and the ability to preserve critical coating properties such as camouflage and corrosion protection. While the systems surveye