Polymeric materials made by entrapping particulates using a wet lay process are a new class of materials recently developed at Auburn University. The voidage of these materials can be adjusted from ca. ninety-eight percent down to values similar to a packed bed. Adsorbents entrapped in microfibrous meshes produce exceptionally effective polishing filters. These materials are made by a wet lay paper making process resulting in high uniformity of basis weight. Other materials with entrapped particles manufactured by air lay processes do not posses high uniformity of basis weight and the particle sizes that can be used are limited to larger particles. Adsorbent particles small as fifty micron can be entrapped in microfibrous polishing adsorbents while minimizing pressure drop penalties. Pressure drop due to the small particles is minimized by producing the microfibrous materials at voidages of ca. eighty percent. A recent theoretical breakthrough accurately estimates pressure drop for the entire range of voidage including values above eighty percent for which Ergun’s equation seriously underestimates the pressure drop.

Previously, a two layer gas adsorption kinetic model was used to design experimental tests that demonstrated two to four fold improvements of DMMP gas life to pressure drop ratio over the C2A1 gas mask canister in the same volume (320 cc) as the ASZM-TEDA carbon bed and the HEPA filtration element using a sintered nickel fiber/ACP mesh polishing sorbent. DMMP gas life test results for COTS RCA-CBA canisters and the same canisters with polymeric polishing sorbents added will be presented. The addition of polymeric polishing sorbents increased the pressure drop by only four mm H2O at 85 lpm test condition to a total of 52 mm H2O and the DMMP gas life was improved by 50 %.