SBIR Phase I: Designer polyamide for acid neutralizing personal protective equipment

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是减少采矿、军事、急救服务和其他角色中使用个人防护装备（PPE）的工人的危险酸相关伤害。受影响的个人防护用品表面仍可能含有未稀释的酸，可能与皮肤接触，导致受伤或毁容。本项目提出了一种新的PPE表面化学反应材料，使其在接触时能中和有害酸。该材料可用作化学工作服、实验室工作服、手套、二次密封和防护涂层等材料的添加剂。此外，该表面可以反复激活，从而实现可持续性。这个SBIR一期项目将推进无溶剂反应挤出的转化。目前可用的聚合物和含有酸的材料上的涂层仅仅作为耐化学的被动屏障，是不够的。拟议的项目进行了一套标准化的实验，以优化时间温度分布，最大限度地减少不必要的副反应，并最大限度地提高吞吐量。该技术方案包括确定各种参数以调整产品性能。此外，它将作为添加剂混合到现有的PPE聚合物中以评估功效。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to reduce hazardous acid-related injuries of workers who use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in mining, the military, first responder service, and other roles. Affected PPE surfaces can still contain the non-diluted acid which may come in contact with skin, leading to injury or disfigurement. This project proposes a new material for the surface of PPE to be chemically reactive so that it can neutralize the hazardous acid on contact. This material may be used as an additive to other materials for chemical suits, lab coats, gloves, secondary containment, and protective coatings. Moreover, this surface can be repeatedly reactivated, enabling sustainability. This SBIR Phase I project will advance translation of a solvent-less reactive extrusion. Currently available polymeric and the coatings on the materials that contain the acids act merely as chemically resistant passive barriers and are inadequate. The proposed project conducts a standardized set of experiments to optimize the temporal temperature profile, minimize undesired side reactions, and maximize the throughput. The technical plan includes determination of various parameters to tune product properties. Furthermore, it will be blended as an additive to incumbent PPE polymers to evaluate efficacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.