Removal of toxic gas by hybrid chemical filter fabricated by the sequential adsorption of polymers

A high-performance chemical filter for toxic gas, such as ammonia or acetal dehyde, was newly fabricated by forming a layer-by-layer self-assembly film on the surface of a fiberglass cloth. The filter was greatly superior to t he conventional active carbon filter. The newly developed filter showed rem arkably high performance, because it can adsorb large amounts of gas molecu les by both chemical and physical adsorption. Ammonia or acetaldehyde gases react with the polyelectrolytes in the film and are adsorbed into the mult ilayers of the films. In this paper, we report that the performance of the chemical filter is dependent on the nano-structure of the thin polymer film coated on the fiberglass cloth. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.