NEI CORPORATION — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A14-057

Description

Lens fogging leads to diminished visual performance of personal protective eyewear in certain extreme environments. Currently available anti-fog coatings on military goggles are not resistant to scratching and chemicals. Further, their anti-fog performance degrades as a result of cleaning and sanitization procedures. In collaboration with a leading supplier of military protective eyewear, we propose to develop a new class of durable, multifunctional anti-fog coatings that are scratch resistant and have the ability to self-clean. The proposed effort builds upon NEI?s core competency in developing nanotechnology-based transparent coatings and our collaborator?s extensive experience in the design and manufacture of protective eyewear. The proposed technology is based on a scratch-resistant transparent NANOMYTE? Hardcoat, developed and commercialized by NEI. The NANOMYTE? Hardcoat formulation will be chemically modified such that the anti-fog effect is preserved after repeated use. The self-cleaning ability will be enabled by the surface being both hydrophilic (which is necessary to prevent fogging) and oleophobic (which is needed for contamination resistance). It is anticipated that the proposed approach will lead to an anti-fog coating with excellent mechanical and chemical resistance, as well as durability. In Phase I, optical grade polycarbonate substrates will be coated with the proposed anti-fog coating, and tested as per ANSI, EN and military specifications. The properties and performance will be benchmarked against currently used coatings. The Phase II program will focus on assessing the mechanical and chemical resistance of the anti-fog coating under operational conditions of field use, with the goal of delivering prototype goggles to the Army.