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，随着氯气作为武器的使用，它以现在的形式变得明显起来。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。其中许多化学剂在环境和表面上是持久存在的，因为与化学武器(CWS)接触的设备必须进行净化。受污染表面的净化和销毁往往涉及大量的腐蚀性液体试剂，如浓缩次氯酸钠1，以使化学品水解物，以便安全处置。能够主动去污的表面非常有趣，因为它们可以帮助控制或最大限度地减少表面污染及其扩散。众所周知，表面化学和结构影响液体在表面上的行为，著名的例子如莲花效应，使用分层结构来产生不含氟聚合物的超疏水表面2已证明，分层通过将气泡困在液滴下面而显著增加表面的疏水性。层次化表面已经以多种方式创建，包括平版印刷3或通过不同大小的纳米和微米颗粒的组合，这些表面非常粗糙，具有很大的表面与投影表面积比。功能表面在防污、动态光学性能、附着力等方面具有广泛的应用前景。在表面上添加特定的活性化学官能团可以为具有受控结构的表面添加额外的功能。例如，已经证明共价系链官能团可以产生具有包括生物杀伤性4在内的一系列性质的表面。人们认为，将层次化表面的高表面积和接触角与能够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.