This project will develop blast mitigating coatings based on polyurea chemistry with self-stratifying flame retardant additive packages. Blast mitigating coatings (BMCs) have been shown to be an effective means of minimizing injuries sustained from flying debris, however, BMCs currently do not meet the flammability requirements for ship-board applications. There is a real need and desire to fill this requirement as soon as possible off of existing materials and technologies on the market. Noetic Technologies is well positioned to address this need, given the breadth of experience of its staff with product development and commercialization, and its access to technical expertise at The University of Southern Mississippi. Noetic Technologies proposes to develop a system that spontaneously forms a multilayer coating upon application to steel substrates, one for energy absorption and the other for flame protection. This will be accomplished through pretreatment of flame retardant pigments with surface active agents and inclusion of surface act5ve additives that promote the formation of a char layer at the coating-air interface. If successful, this method will yield a coating that meets the NAVSEA flammability requirements, and at the same time has sufficient elastomeric properties to mitigate blast effects.
Benefits: The efforts detailed in this proposal will give the foundation required for further developments in Phase II. Successful results in this phase will be directly communicated to potential end users such as Northrop Grumman to get their input as to additional components required in future developments. Currently there exists an immediate need for the fire-retardant, blast mitigation coatings for defense applications. These coatings could be applied to protect vehicles, maritime vessels, and buildings, and many other applications to include many non-military ones could benefit from this technology. Examples of the latter could be in domestic chemical manufacturing facilities which face many of the same blast and fire concerns as the military, however these arise instead from industrial mishaps
