Nerve agents degraded by enzymatic foams

Keith E. LeJeune, James R. Wild and Alan J. Russell ()
Additional contact information
Keith E. LeJeune: Carnegie Mellon University
James R. Wild: Texas A&M, College Station
Alan J. Russell: Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh

Nature, 1998, vol. 395, issue 6697, 27-28

Abstract: Abstract The decontamination of large areas that have been exposed to chemical weapons is a critical component of defence and anti-terrorist strategies around the world1,2,3. Until now, nerve agents could be decontaminated only with bleach treatment and/or ex situ incineration4, which had severe environmental consequences. Small-scale methods of decontamination and demilitarization are available, but the problem of decontamination over a wide area has not been solved2,3. Here we incorporate organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH), an enzyme that hydrolyses nerve agents, into aqueous fire-fighting foams to catalyse surface decontamination. The performance of enzyme-containing foams is reproducible and predictable in detoxifying organophosphorus nerve toxins deposited onto surfaces. Such foams are an environmentally friendly alternative to current decontamination solutions, which are nonspecific in their action and contain significant amounts of hazardous organic solvents.

Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/25634 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:395:y:1998:i:6697:d:10.1038_25634

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/25634

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().