All-Weather Dry Decontaminant Polymer-H₂O₂ Complex for HD Degradation

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a highly effective decontaminant against chemical warfare agents (CWAs) when present both in a liquid and as a solid powder. For the latter, this can be in the form of H₂O₂ being complexed to a polymer, such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). While a H₂O₂-PVP complex is indeed effective at decontaminating CWAs, it is vulnerable to environmental conditions such as high relative humidities (RH), which can dissociate the H₂O₂ from the complex before it is given the opportunity to react with CWAs. In this paper, we demonstrate that the cross-linked version of PVP forms a highly stable complex with H₂O₂, which can withstand both high (40 °C) and low (-20 °C) temperatures as well as maintain stability at high RH up to 90% over several days. Collectively, this lays the framework for processing the H₂O₂-PVP complex in a variety of form factors that can maintain efficacy under a wide range of real-world environmental conditions.