Army Opens New Chemistry Lab

The Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Aberdeen, Md., has opened a $46 million Advanced Chemistry Laboratory (ACL). This lab was designed to enhance the center’s efforts to counter the threat of chemical warfare and terrorists’ use of chemical agents. According to the Army, the new facility “is the only laboratory of its kind designed for working with the world’s most super toxic compounds.” ACL houses more than 20 highly instrumented labs in 54,000 sq ft of lab space. Four nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy suites will be used for sample analysis in support of the Chemical Weapons Convention and for carrying out decontamination studies. One research project is teasing out how chemical agent contamination affects such surfaces as asphalt, concrete, and soil with the aim of developing more accurate detection, protection, and decontamination technologies. In addition to supporting the mission of Army soldiers, ACL will serve the emergency first-responder community as well as such federal agencies as the FBI and the Departments of State and of Justice.