Date: Jan 15, 2010 Source: ARMY SBIR Success Stories (
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Currently, biological agents and disease pathogens pose a serious threat to homeland security, first responders, the domestic food supply, and our deployed Soldiers. Luna Innovations is developing self-decontaminating textiles that quickly render the biological agents harmless upon contact with the material. This is achieved by permanently attaching biocides to the textile surface, producing a long-lasting protective garment -- even after repeated laundering.
In addition to the self- decontaminating textile application, this technology has evolved into a renewable, self-cleaning coating program for decontamination of biological agents on vehicles and equipment. Current decontamination processes for biological agents are complex, cumbersome, and costly.
Technology developed by Luna replaces this process by employing a multi-functional coating formulation with the ability to continuously decontaminate the surface exposed to biological agents. The self-decontaminating coatings have been shown to efficiently neutralize biological pathogens at the surface achieving near quantitative killing of vegetative bacteria and a 99.99+% reduction against Anthrax-type spores.
The multi-functional formulation consists of the biocide and nutrient/germinant that can be incorporated directly into a Chemical Agent Resistant Coating resin. This resin is active against vegetative cells and spores, which simplifies the decontamination process for vehicles and equipment.
The potential benefits of this coating technology to military and civilian institutions are tremendous based on its ability to greatly reduce the threat of biological agents and minimize transmission of harmful pathogens from contaminated surfaces. The primary commercial markets for this technology are the food and health care industries for protection and passive hazard mitigation of biological agents and disease pathogens for food safety and hospital hygiene.
Phase III Impacts
Luna Innovations has received $3.4M from various Department of Defense programs to advance biocidal surface technology. The technology developed by Luna in the textile program is being adapted to self-decontaminating surface coatings for vehicles and equipment. The market for military vehicle and equipment biocidal coatings is estimated at $165M to $210M per year.
