| Selectively permeable materials have been widely used throughout the chemical industry in gas separations, water purification, and in medical/metabolic waste filtration; however, their applications in chemical/biological (CB) agent protective clothing was only realized in 1987 by the author who began his career with the US Army Soldier, and Biological Chemical Command in 1984. This thesis compares the textile property performance of the selectively permeable materials and traditional permeable, semipermeable, and impermeable chemical/biological protective materials. It includes discussions on: CB agents and their effects, different types of materials and their performances, trade-off between user comfort and desired CB agent protection, material concepts, established test methods and advanced techniques used to evaluate the applicability of perm-selective materials as an integral part of a clothing system, and test results of promising materials, such as their physical properties, moisture vapor transport properties, barrier properties, and limited field tests. Closure/interface integration, current and future research and dual use applications will also be addressed. |
