Thermal and catalytic methods used for destruction of chemical warfare agents

Abstract

The decontamination of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) from structures, environmental media and even personnel has become an area of particular interest in recent years due to increased homeland security concerns. This article reviews applications of catalytic methods used for decontamination of CWAs. Most attention was given to the following methods: thermocatalysis, photocatalysis and enzyme catalysis among the many methods of catalytic CWA decomposition. Unfortunately, there are not enough data obtained with real CWAs due to the difficulty in handling, so we have described also data available for CWAs simulants. These methods can be useful for decontamination systems that can reduce the damage caused by possible terrorism.