NRSDEC announces development of “second skin”

Scientists at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) recently announced the development of a new kind of “second skin” that will protect soldiers from potential 21st century biological hazards.

“The material design is based on the use of responsive polymer gels, including organohydrogels and functional chemical species such as catalysts,” Dr. Ramanathan “Nagu” Nagarajan, senior research scientist for Soldier Nanomaterials at NSRDEC, said. “The second skin will be able to sense chemical and biological agents, which will trigger a response within the gels.

“The second skin will be a protective ‘skin’ engineered with textile materials as a substrate that will adapt to the environment that the Soldier is in,” Dr. Paola D’Angelo, an NSRDEC research bioengineer, said. “The idea is that the skin will be lightweight, it will not retain heat, and it will be air and moisture permeable.”

The “second skin” would theoretically allow a soldier in the field to ignore bio hazardous threats that would’ve at best caused life threatening injuries in the past.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Air Force Civil Engineering Center and the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center are collaborating with researchers at NSRDEC for the project.