SBIR-STTR Award

The U.S. Army has long recognized the potential of carbon based microfibers and nanofibers for use as obscurant materials. However, while base materials such as carbon nanofibers have demonstrated some of the most promising performance, a need exists to refine key aspects of the material to make it suitable for use as a broadband visible IR obscurant sought by the U.S. Army. Applied Sciences, Inc. (ASI), proposes to deliver the ideal visible-IR obscurant material by combining known and scalable processing techniques with its already established production and conductivity enhancement processing. These techniques and capabilities combined, will enable a precise control over the production, manipulation and transformation of high-aspect ratio carbon microfibers into effective engineered obscurants, which meet the targeted requirements set forth by the U.S Army. The development work will be further guided and informed by Prof. Charles W. Bruce team at New Mexico State University (NMSU).

Smokes and obscurants play a crucial role in protecting the Warfighter by decreasing the electromagnetic energy available for the function of enemy sensors, seekers, trackers, optical enhancement devices and the human eye. Numerical modeling predicts that order of magnitude increases over current performance levels are possible if high aspect-ratio, highly conductive particles can be effectively disseminated as an un-agglomerated aerosol cloud.Experimental efforts in a Phase I feasibility demonstration affirm the prospects for achieving the benefits of tailored geometry and enhanced conductivity of graphite nanofibers for this purpose.In the Phase II development program, methods and findings from Phase I will be used to optimize size selection of CNF, and the equipment and instrumentation necessary to advance laboratory-scale production to bench-scale production will be designed and/or qualified, and procured.The critical processing parameters will be optimized to yield reproducible advanced obscurants for broadband visible-IR obscuration.Phase II development will encompass enhanced milling processing, methods of selective filtration and sorting of particle size, conductivity enhancement by heat-treatment and intercalation, and functionalization to promote dispersibility.At the conclusion of the development effort, a cost model will be prepared for the selected processing steps, and samples will be provided to ERDC.