Synchrotron radiation study of impregnated activated carbon used in protective equipment for chemical warfare

It is well-known that activated carbon, which impregnated with metals, such as iron (Fe), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr) and silver (Ag), is an important raw material used as absorbent in protective equipment against the chemical warfare. In this work, synchrotron radiation facilities, such as micro-beam X-ray fluorescent spectroscopy (μ-XRF), Soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (SXAS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) are applied to characterize the impregnated activated carbon used in the chemical warfare protective equipment, such as protective gas mask and protective clothing. Scanning electron microscope coupled with dispersive energy X-ray fluorescent spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) is also carried out to analysis the structure and elemental composition. The results showed a present of many kinds of metals, especially chromium, iron and copper with different elemental distribution. It was also shown that Cr(VI) which was a carcinogen, was found in some samples. It is proposed that these methods can be used as fingerprint to identify the impregnated activated carbon absorbent.