Wearable articles for repelling decay products generated from radon

• US 10,388,418 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2018
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Arvin, Charles L., Gordon, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vanore, David A
• Application Number:
  US16/216,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20190122778A1
• Time in Patent Office: 252 Days
• Field of Search: 422122, 95 69, 95 70, 95 55, 2505161
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/11 Noble gases
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2258/06 Polluted air
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2259/4508 for cleaning air in buildings
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 49/00 Separating dispersed particles from gases, air or vapours by other methods
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0407 Constructional details of adsorbing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 1/12 Laminated shielding materials
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 3/02 Clothing
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 5/06 Details of, or accessories to, the containers
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 9/02 Treating gases

Abstract

A method is presented for collecting and removing radon from a confined area, a storage box or articles of clothing. The method includes collecting radon from the confined area or around a storage box via at least one collector, connecting each of a plurality of radon adsorbers to a corresponding power supply or power source such as a battery, capacitor, fuel cell, etc. diverting, via a plurality of valves, the collected radon or radon daughters through one or more of the plurality of radon adsorbers, and receiving, via a plurality of radon storage units, radon or radon daughters held by the plurality of radon adsorbers for a predetermined period of time.

Claims

1. A wearable article for preventing decay products produced from radon from adsorbing to an outer surface of the wearable article, the wearable article comprising:

an inner protective layer having an inner surface and the outer surface, the inner surface configured to contact a user; and

an outer protective layer configured to contact at least a portion of the outer surface of the inner protective layer;

wherein the outer protective layer includes a polarized metal mesh to force surface charge to be positive to prevent the decay products from adsorbing to the outer surface of the wearable article.

2. The wearable article of claim 1, wherein the polarized metal mesh is constructed by cladding a metal so that a core metal pulls electrons to create the positive charge on the outer surface of the wearable article.

3. A wearable article for preventing decay products produced from radon from adsorbing to an outer surface of the wearable article, the wearable article comprising:

an inner protective layer having an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface configured to contact a user; and

an outer protective layer configured to contact at least a portion of the outer surface of the inner protective layer;

wherein the outer protective layer is constructed from metal fibers to force surface charge to be positive to prevent the decay products from adsorbing to the outer surface of the wearable article.

4. The wearable article of claim 3, wherein the metal fibers include a core and a casing.

5. The wearable article of claim 4, wherein the core is constructed from a first metal and the casing is constructed from a second metal.

6. The wearable article of claim 5, wherein the first metal is different than the second metal.

7. The wearable article of claim 5, wherein the first metal is steel and the second metal is zinc.

8. The wearable article of claim 5, wherein a thickness of the casing is from about 5 nm to about 100 nm.