Recent Advancements On Warfare Agents/metal Oxides Surface Chemistry And Their Simulation Study

Chemical warfare agents (CWA) have been used in the World Wars and in terrorist attacks, and hence there is an urgent need to find means of their decontamination. Metal oxides offer a rapid means of their disposal, since they contain reactive Lewis acid and basic sites, on which adsorption of the CWA, and subsequent hydrolysis, can take place. Destructive adsorption of CWA on metal oxides yields non-toxic products. Nanoscale metal oxides display enhanced reactive properties toward warfare agents due to their high surface area, large number of highly reactive edges, corner defect sites, unusual lattice planes and high surface to volume ratio. Both experimental and theoretical studies have established that decomposition of nerve agents is facilitated on nanoscale Al2O3, MgO, CaO, TiO2, ZnO and small edge and corner clay mineral fragments. Compared to sulfur mustard, nerve agents are more potent. We first briefly describe their mode of action. Many experimental and theoretical studies hav