LUNA INNOVATIONS INCORPORATED — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: A13-044

Description

Recent advances in sensors, seekers and trackers are demanding for more efficient obscurant countermeasures. Also, with the increasing advancement of portable electronic systems, soldiers are often overburdened having less capability to carry smoke devices, necessitating the development of more efficient and smaller smoke devices. Several visual and bispectral obscurants have been developed but they are toxic, flame hazardous, or low performing. There is a particular need of less hazardous, less incendiary visual obscurants with significantly improved extinction performance. These materials can be used as standalone visual obscurants or in combination with advanced IR materials as bispectral obscurants providing broadband protection. Luna develops advanced hollow metallic nanoparticles with strong surface plasmonic effects. In Phase I, the technical feasibility was demonstrated by experimental synthesis and optical and morphological measurements, and theoretical modeling also identified clear opportunities for further improvements. In Phase II, Luna and its collaborators will optimize these nanostructures for visual and near-shortwave IR obscuration, develop more effective aerosolization processes and dissemination mechanisms, and demonstrate prototype performance in preparation of cost-effective scaling up and field testing.