Gang Sun
University of California, USA
Sustainable Detoxifying and Sensing Materials for Improved Personal Protections
Abstract:
Current textile materials employed in personal protective equipment (PPE) are mostly serving as barriers to targeted hazards with compromised environmental and health concerns. The development of sustainable functional materials with improved personal protective performance has become an urgent demand. This research group at the University of California, Davis has been studying reusable, rechargeable, and biodegradation biocidal textiles, chemically detoxifying, highly sensitive, and highly selective personal use biosensors for occupational and public protective applications for decades. In recent years, we have shifted the focus to the preparation of fibers and fabric materials with integrated reactive and sensing functions against vaporous pesticides and pathogens as well as with reuse and rechargeability. Among them, fibers possessing hierarchical porous structures were fabricated through simple chemical modifications and have demonstrated ultrahigh capacity and efficacy in detoxifying target chemicals. This presentation will provide a summary of the progress in the preparation of cellulose fiber-based detoxifying and sensing materials for applications in biological and chemical protective clothing. We hope the results could contribute to the development of next-generation personal protective materials with demonstrated sustainable and multifunctional performances.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the California Department of Pesticide Regulations, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the US (NIEHS) superfund program (5P42ES004699-30), and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health through a collaborative grant from Iowa State University.
Biography:
Dr. Gang Sun is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of California, Davis, USA. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Fiber and Material Engineering from Donghua University, China, and his doctorate in Chemistry from Auburn University, USA. He is a recipient of a CAREER award from the US National Science Foundation (1997) and the Olney Medal (2016) signifying outstanding achievement in textile chemistry from the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC). Dr. Sun is serving as the editor-in-chief of the AATCC Journal of Research and a member of the editorial boards of several major textile journals. Dr. Sun’s research group studies and develops biological and chemical protective textiles and materials. Recent works include daylight-induced and reusable antibacterial and antiviral polymers and fibers for improved respiratory protection; personal use, highly sensitive sensors of chemical and biological toxicants; and novel reusable and biodegradable cooling materials.