Protection is obligatory for the safety of people in certain occupations where they might be exposed to hazardous chemicals. This review provides an overview of chemical protective clothing, along with its necessity during industrial and military operations as well as in response to acts of terror. Moreover, chemical protective or barrier suits are illustrated and explained including their types, selection processes based on chemical hazards, working environments, and various materials available for the fabrication of effective barrier clothing. Additionally, this review elucidates current research gaps, while underscoring the challenges facing recently developed chemical protective clothing, by compiling relevant research onto a single platform. Besides, this review includes and delineates future trends in chemical protective outfits based on electro-spun nano-fibre technology involved in both detection and decomposition of poisonous chemical agents that come in contact with clothing material, and the integration of selectively permeable membrane technology to discriminately block hazardous chemicals.

The study evaluates the simultaneous use of aerogel and phase change material (PCM) on the face cloth of thermal liner in firefighter's protective garment. Aerogel is commonly used to resist incoming heat flux in the field of high heat protection and to prevent the loss of body heat in the cold environment clothing. In high heat protection clothing, aerogel not only resists the incoming heat fluxes but also blocks the outbound body heat. As a result the wearer suffers from internal increase of body temperature. Previous studies identified the potential use of aerogel in firefighter's protective clothing. However there was no clear approach to resolve the problem associated with body heat release. Current study focuses on the problem by applying PCM along with aerogel on fabric. The ambient-side of a thermal liner face cloth was coated with silica aerogel particles; meanwhile, the next to skin side was coated with PCM/aerogel composite powder. The new thermal liner revealed superior thermal protection and comfort. It extended the time to reach pain threshold and increased the pain alarm time. The Fourier transform infrared analysis of the aerogel/PCM composite powder showed the presence of PCM in nanoporous aerogel particles while the differential scanning calorimeter quantified the heat absorbing capacity of the new composite powder. Scanning electron microscope, air permeability tester, and jPOR macro of ImageJ software were used for the surface characteristics and porosity analysis of coated liner. The thermal stability of the composite powder was investigated through an infrared thermal camera. No dripping or form deterioration was observed when the composite powder was heated over a temperature three times above the melting temperature of the pure PCM.

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Phase change material (PCM) in firefighting garment enhances protection and comfort. Wearing a protective clothing containing PCM, while fighting the fire, is a direct risk to the wearer as most PCMs used are flammable. This article reports a solution by using aerogel. Thermal liner fabric was treated with PCM and/or aerogel and then their thermal properties were analyzed. It has been found that the mean ignition time of PCM-containing thermal liner is around 3.3 s in current case while this value significantly increased to 5.5 s when the combination of aerogel and PCM was used. Moreover, the weight of the liner fabric with aerogel decreased in comparison to PCM-containing liner. Aerogel also slowed down the spreading of flame in PCM-containing fabric. Aerogel-coated liner showed superior heat resistance and the combination of aerogel with PCM increased the thermal resistance of PCM-containing liner. Keywords comfort, aerogel, phase change material, firefighting garment, thermal protection Various types of phase change materials (PCMs) have long been used in clothing as a means of body heat regulation for comfort enhancement. These materials absorb the heat generated by the human body during action and release the heat when cooled. There are more than 500 types of PCMs including both natural and synthetic types (Hale, Hoover, & Oneill, 1971; McCarthy & Marzo, 2012; Pause, 2003). Among all types of PCMs, paraffins are commonly used for clothing thermal regulation due to their compatibility, nonsupercooling, and high heat storage capacity (Fang, Li, Chen, & Liu, 2010). In recent years, the concept of using PCM for firefighting protective clothing (FPC) has gained ground. Gao, Kuklane, and Holmer (2010, 2011) investigated the effect of PCM on ergonomics of firefighters by introducing a cooling vest that contains pockets of PCM. McCarthy & Marzo (2012) incorporated PCM in FPC by sewing different forms of encapsulated PCM behind the facecloth of the thermal liner. Rossi and Bolli (2005) also investigated the application of PCM in