Highly Solvent Resistant, Electrically Resistive HybridSil Foam for Aircraft

Through the proposed SBIR program, NanoSonic will provide the Air Force with flexible, electrically resistive HybridSil foams that have been molecularly engineered for exceptional resistance to aircraft fuels, oils, and coolants. NanoSonic's HybridSil aerospace foams will be tailored to serve as a drop-in replacement for current foam parts and not require any aircraft modification. To meet this challenge, NanoSonic will employ a rigorous design of experiments that will enable the correlation and combinatorial optimization of critical structure-property interdependencies affording next-generation reticulated aerospace foams that exceed the Air Force's chemical resistance, electrical resistivity, mechanical durability, and weight performance metrics. NanoSonic will also demonstrate the ability to precisely tailor the electrical resistivity of down-selected foams through the use of high aspect ratio conductive fillers. This program will build from NanoSonic's innovative blast protective, fire resistant HybridSil foam technology , which has an established flame spread rating of zero; produces low density smoke, affords low average heat release rates, and has exceptional vertical burn resistance. In support of a near term Phase III transition into a broad spectrum of aerospace platforms, NanoSonic has received strong integration interest from Lockheed Martin.