Determination of Dynamic Wiping Efficiency of Cotton-Based Nonwoven Textile Substrates for Toxic Chemical Decontamination

Recently, human health issues are surfacing up in the Gulf of Mexico due to the toxic oil spill in the waters and various terrains in proximity with the deepwater horizon rig explosion site. It is extremely necessary to quickly remove oil from the contaminated surfaces, skin and protective equipment used by the volunteers. Utilization of absorbent/adsorbent textiles in from of wipes and vapor adsorbent masks can reduce such health hazards posed by oil and associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) vapors. It is very important to evaluate various clean-up materials for their dynamic wiping efficiency and practicality of application, in case of a realistic spill scenario. Recent research at Texas Tech University has shown that the textile substrate Fibertect^®, which is made from raw cotton and adsorbent activated carbon fabric, was able to absorb amounts of oil which are comparable to other commercially available fibrous sorbents materials. The cotton-based three layered wipe Fibertect^® can also hold toxic chemical vapors and toxic gases associated with the oil. Evaluation of the dynamic wiping efficiency of various wiping materials, including cotton-based Fibertect^®, across a single terrain shall build a platform for a comparative analysis for such materials and wipe designs.

This paper shall focus on elaborating an experimental procedure to determine the dynamic wiping efficiency of various cotton-based nonwoven textile substrates for different chemical spills, including oil.  Detailed design & fabrication of the dynamic wiping efficiency apparatus was carried out based on ASTM standards. The results also report the dynamic wiping efficiencies for different chemicals such as water, p-xylene and motor oil. The results have proven extremely useful in optimizing the specifications of the cotton-based textile substrate depending on the chemical spill properties and the nature of the spill terrain.