Decontamination of Chemical Warfare Agents on sensitive equipment materials using Zr4+ and Ge4+ co-doped TiO2 and hydrofluoroether suspension

• Novel Zr–Ge–TiO2 for decontamination of CWAs was developed.
• HFE was first used as the dispersion solvent of suspension decontaminants.
• A gas collection system was designed to study the volatilization of CWAs.
• The suspension has potential applications on sensitive equipment decontamination.

Novel Zr4+ and Ge4+ co-doped titanium dioxide (Zr–Ge–TiO2) nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs) were prepared via a homogeneous precipitation method. Considering the volatilization of solvents, solubility to CWAs, and compatibility with sensitive equipments, hydrofluoroether (HFE) was first used as the dispersion solvent of suspension decontaminants. Here, Zr (5.02 wt%)–Ge (0.94 wt%)–TiO2 with the specific surface area of 447.9 m2 g−1 exhibited the best photocatalytic performance. This was dispersed in HFE-458 (HCF2CF2CH2OCF2CF2H) and HFE-6512 (HCF2CF2CF2CF2CH2OCF2CF2H) respectively. A new gas collection system was designed to study volatilization in the reaction process. As a result, HFE-6512 is more suitable as the dispersion solvent than HFE-458. The suspension prepared with HFE-6512 not only has higher degradation efficiency of HD, GD, VX, 2-CEES and DMMP, but also has fewer volatile agents. Under simulated sunlight irradiation, both the surface removal and the degradation efficiency of HD, GD, VX, 2-CEES and DMMP were over 99.95% after 37 min. The results show that this suspension has potential applications in decontamination of CWAs on sensitive equipment materials. With high absorbing efficiency of CWAs and their simulants, the designed gas collection system is reliable for the selection of solvents and improvement of disinfection effect.

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