Novel Structured Surface Coatings for Protection from Chemical, Biological and Radiological Agents

化学战自古以来就存在，但在第一次世界大战期间，氯气作为武器的使用，使其以目前的形式得到认可。随着现代化学的出现，可用作化学战剂的物质范围大大增加了。这些化学制剂中有许多在环境和表面上具有持久性，因此与化学武器接触的设备必须进行净化。污染表面的净化和破坏通常涉及大量腐蚀性液体试剂，如浓次氯酸钠1，以水解化学物质以安全处置。能够主动自我净化的表面是非常有趣的，因为它们可以帮助控制或最小化表面污染及其传播。众所周知，表面化学和结构会影响液体在表面上的行为，著名的例子包括利用层次结构产生无氟聚合物超疏水表面的莲花效应。层次结构通过捕获液滴下方的空气袋，显着增加了表面的疏水性。层次表面可以通过几种方式产生，包括光刻或通过不同尺寸的纳米和微颗粒的组合，这些表面非常粗糙，表面与投影表面积的比例很大。功能表面是一个非常感兴趣的领域，应用于防污，动态光学特性，附着力。在表面上添加特定的反应性化学功能可以为具有受控结构的表面添加额外的功能。例如，共价系结的官能团已被证明可以产生具有一系列特性的表面，包括生物杀灭性4。人们认为，层次表面的高表面积和接触角与可以中和化学武器的功能部分相结合，将产生易于清洁和能够主动去污的表面。

Chemical warfare has existed since antiquity, however it became recognisable in its current form during World War 1 with the use of chlorine gas as a weapon. With the advent of modern chemistry, the range of substances that could be used as chemical warfare agents has significantly increased. Many of these chemical agents are persistent in the environment and on surfaces as such equipment in contact with chemical weapons (CWs) must be decontaminated. Decontamination and destruction of contaminated surfaces often involves large quantities of caustic liquid reagents such as concentrated sodium hypochlorite1 to hydrolyse the chemicals for safe disposal. Surfaces that can actively decontaminate themselves are of great interest as they could help to control or minimise surface contamination and its spreading. Surface chemistry and structure is well known to affect the behaviour of liquids on the surface with famous examples such as the lotus effect using a hierarchical structure to produce a fluoropolymer free superhydrophobic surface2 Hierarchy has been showed to significantly increase the hydrophobicity of a surface by trapping pockets of air underneath the droplet. Hierarchal surfaces have been created in several ways including lithographically3 or via the combination of different sizes of nano and micro particles, these surfaces are very rough having a large surface to projected surface area ratio. Functional surfaces is an area of intense interest with applications in antifouling, dynamic optical properties, adhesion. The addition of specific reactive chemical functionality on a surface can add additional functionality to surfaces with controlled structure. For example, covalently tethered functional groups have been shown to produce surface with a range of properties including biocidal4. It is thought that the combination of the high surface area and contact angles of hierarchal surfaces and functional moieties that can neutralise chemical weapons would produce a surface that is easy to clean and capable of active decontamination.