Research progress in chemical and biological protective materials with integrated conventional “decontamination-and-sensing” functions

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucial for ensuring occupational safety when handling toxic chemicals or in close contact with biological pathogens. The increased poisoning and infection cases outside the working scenario have attracted public attention, which drove the development and application of PPE for the professionals and the public. The use of PPE can effectively lower the risk of acute and chronic diseases caused by pesticide exposures and significantly reduce the spread of infectious diseases. However, conventional PPE mostly only functions as physical blocking or electrostatic repulsion materials, which still poses potential risks caused by cross- and post-contamination from the PPE. Although sensors are not usually considered as a necessary component of PPE, the detection of health threats in the environment could benefit preparations for unprepared risks promptly, especially in non-occupational situations, thus improving the protection of human safety. In this review, we discuss the needs of novel PPE by surveying some insufficient protection cases and threats that occurred during conventional PPE applications. Then, we summarize recent progress in developing single-functional decontamination and colorimetric sensing PPE, mostly fiber-based media against agricultural toxicants and microorganisms, with intension to inspire the future design of novel PPE with the integrated “decontamination-and-sensing” property. Some recently developed conventional dual-functional materials against either pesticide or microorganism exposures are highlighted. Finally, strategies and limitations of developing decontamination and sensing material using unique interactions and reactions of targets with functionalized fibrous substrates are discussed by comparing the successful approaches and practical challenges in PPE applications.