Decontamination of chemical warefare agent simulator Dimethyl Methylphosphonate (DMMP) using RF large area non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma

Abstract

Experimental results of the treatment of dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), which is a chemical stimulant of the sarin gas, are reported. The plasma used for the experiment was a large area non-thermal RF atmospheric pressure plasma produced in the ambient air, of which size was 15times100 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Previously measured current and gas temperature were low enough for thermally-sensitive material treatments, and actual applications to a pork sample and human skin proved its electrical and thermal safety. 100 muliter of the liquid DMMP was dropped on copper and glass plates then treated by the plasma at the input power of 100 W for several tens of minutes. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that several minute long treatment was enough to significantly affect the DMMP characteristic infrared spectrum. On the other hand, gas chromatography was used for quantitative measurements. The treated copper and glass plates were placed in methane chloride solvent to collect the remaining DMMP. Then, the DMMP concentration of each solution was measured. After 10 minutes of the treatment, 99.05% of DMMP on the copper plate was gone, and 99.96% DMMP on the glass plate was decontaminated after 16 minutes of the treatment. These decontamination rates are far good compared to other conventional methods such as heat, chemical catalyst etc.