Manufacturers’ Monthly were joined by CSIRO and DMTC representatives to discuss how nanofibres form the basis of a prototype uniform capable of filtering out harmful particles in broad applications. Jack Lloyd Writes.
CSIRO researchers have developed a prototype uniform using nanofibres that is poised to deliver improved protection for Australian troops and other first responders from chemical and biological threats. With initial tests complete, the lightweight fabric material has successfully filtered out harmful particles while retaining a lightweight and breathable nature to help users in extreme temperatures.
“Our nanofibre technology has the potential to improve the level of protection soldiers’ uniforms provide and can also be used for non-military applications, including protecting emergency responders and hazmat crews,” said CSIRO Manufacturing director, Dr Marcus Zipper.
Zipper leads a larger CSIRO research and development unit that focuses on materials science to improve how a particular material functions.
“We work across a broad range of advanced materials including metals, composites, polymers, adsorbents and nanofibres,” he said.
However, the textile innovation is the result of a greater collaboration with industry and research partners, including the Department of Defence, Bruck Textiles, Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG), RMIT University and DMTC (formerly, the Defence Materials Technology Centre), who coordinated the successful prototype development.
“CSIRO’s scientific excellence in nanofibre research has been matched with the expertise of our partners in textiles, defence science, and manufacturing,” said DMTC’s head of program management, Deepak Ganga.
Founding a potentially life-saving innovation
Prior to discovery of what Ganga now views as a “groundbreaking solution,” he recounted the moment when DMTC were approached by DSTG to help roadmap an innovation targeted at filling the universal gap in protection from aerosolised particles.
“DSTG had done early work on this technology at a lab scale, and realised that while there was potential, they needed other partners to take it from the lab. That was when we got involved,” he said.
“We effectively put together the roadmap for this technology, and assembled the collaborators who would need to be involved.”
After this roadmap, the project received Defence funding to further develop the technology.
“It was a lot of lab work and intellectual horsepower to prove that this technology could work at some sort of intermediate scale and would have the ability to be produced at small quantities,” Ganga said.
After this consolidation period was successful, the idea made it beyond the lab, but just short of the manufacturing stage. This would entail the exploration of available material options to ensure the best protection, safety and manufacturability outcomes.
“The success of that phase led to a submission into what was then the Defence Innovation Hub in 2021. We were successful in applying for further funding to move to the technology demonstration phase,” said Ganga.
This Hub funding, Ganga said, allowed the team to bring in specialist input from RMIT and Bruck Textiles to scale up the technology to design and produce a representative garment, and to understand what manufacturability at scale would look like.
Technicalities behind advancing textiles
While Ganga’s roadmap of the innovation may appear simple, CSIRO project lead Dr Yen Truong’s work with its innovative nanofibre technology – the key to the prototype’s success – was far from elementary. Truong, alongside a team of CSIRO scientists, harnessed the unique properties of these nanofibres to create the prototype’s lightweight fabric to filter out harmful particles while remaining breathable.
“CSIRO has been working with nanofibres since 2009. They have a diameter of less than one micron. Your hair is about 100 microns in diameter,” she said.
“Because they’re very fine, they have a high surface to weight ratio, so you don’t need very much to get a lot of surface area. When they form a membrane or a non-woven textile or a material, they have very high porosity.
“Because of this, they can close all the gaps and produce a material that doesn’t let things go through. This therefore prevents any harmful aerosol from coming through.”
Truong described producing nanofibres as a challenging process, as you are required to start off with raw material that is to be made into an optimum formula.
“A lot of work was spent in the early stages doing a lot of developmental work here at CSIRO to perfect the formulation and operating conditions and make the nanofibre the right size,” she said.
After scientific consolidation, Truong said the prototype undertook rigorous testing, of which it reached all performance targets for air filtration, air permeability, thermal comfort, and chemical protection.
“This means it effectively filters pollutants from the air, allows for breathability, maintains comfortable temperatures even in extreme conditions, and offers superior protection from hazardous chemicals,” she said.
Ganga described the fabric testing process as one that follows a lot of standard methods and takes place within different environments.
“We used air permeability as the primary screen, and if it looks good, then particular formulations can be taken forward to other parameters like thermal resistance and the thermal burden,” said Ganga.
“Then we hand them over to Defence to do the actual chemical testing because they have the facilities to do that.”
Aside from fabric testing, Ganga said the testing utilised DSTG’s specialist facilities in Melbourne. This helped the research group better understand suitable joining techniques for the garment.
“You put the garment on the mannequin, and you can make the mannequin sweat and challenge it with chemicals and aerosols,” he said.
“The suit has joints, so we test the border of the joint to make sure that it performs. We carried out thorough testing of all the parts, like sections and pockets.
“The benefit of this testing was it also meant we had to investigate what garment joining techniques would be suitable for these types of garments.”
Beyond the level of testing that has already been conducted, DMTC Limited, Truong and the project team are seeking funding to progress to the next stage of development that is to involve field testing with the Australian Defence Force.
“That will be massive in terms of realising this as an Australian sovereign capability. We need input from the users at this stage to be able to develop the design further,” said Ganga.
Truong said that once the whole suit can be tested on Defence personnel, the garment will be open to explore and be tested within other applications.
“Next would be our first responders and even for environmental uses. A farmer emailed and said, ‘Do you have one of these for me to spray with?’ I think it can go to your everyday use for people who come across hazardous chemicals and aerosols,” she said.
Ganga agreed, stating that while the project’s funding came from Defence, it also represents the most stringent use case.
“The next use cases could even be more general use cases in factories, agriculture and any environment where there’s aerosol contamination or potential for aerosol contamination,” he said.
Collaborating into the future
Ganga used this project as a call for greater collaboration within Australia. He said that the garment demonstrates the power of collaboration, something that is critical for a small country.
“It’s been critical, predominantly because no single organisation in Australia has all the skills to be able to develop a solution like this. There’s so many long-term benefits from working in that way because all of the partners involved develop a deeper understanding of each other’s capabilities,” he said.
“We don’t have the scale or personnel, but what we do have is niche pockets of expertise, so if you can string the pockets of expertise together, and if we can work with government to overcome the challenge of stop-start research funding cycles, you can get a multiplier effect of all of the intellectual horsepower to be able to do developments like this.”
The development of this nanofibre uniform showcases Australian innovation and collaboration that has the potential to enhance protection across numerous sectors. To advance this innovation, securing further funding will be crucial.