Melanin-inspired nanotechnology might help protect workers from deadly nerve agents

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Forward-looking: A team of researchers from Northwestern University set out to put melanin's many talents to work against nerve agents, a class of dangerous organic chemicals. The newly conceived compound takes its cues from nature and could offer an effective "antidote" to one of the most troublesome legacies of World War II.

The researchers developed a melanin-inspired nanotechnology designed to protect people who work around nerve agents and other hazardous chemicals of the same type. This "allomelanin" compound offers many of the same benefits as natural melanin and should be easy to embed in a variety of fibers as a dye.

The nanotech is described in a study recently published in the journal ACS Nano. The study details a "catalytic porous metallized melanin for the remediation of organophosphorus agents."

Organophosphorus chemicals form the...

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